A Spark of Light Illuminating the Darkness
by Tilpy16
Summary: Three girls. Two human, one soul reaper. They have nothing in common until the truth of their pasts are revealed. the common link? The most notorious traitor of the Soul Society! Ichixoc Hitsuxoc kisukexoc
1. Chapter 1

**Okay! So this is my first story! Its probably going to start out rough, but it will get better I promise! **

**Disclaimer! ****I do not own Bleach! I only own the three girls and any characters you don't recognize!**

**Chiki Nakayama**

_Monsters. Horrible giant black monsters with white masks that looked like skulls were chasing me. I had nowhere to run or hide. The only thing I could do was run straight ahead and hope that my legs would hold out._

_The dry desert-like landscape never changed. It was like I wasn't even moving. The harder I ran the less I moved. The monsters were still chasing me. They were closer now. I could feel their nasty breath on the back of my neck. I kept running until I finally tripped._

I rolled over and looked at the clock. 3:33 a.m.

'Great,' I thought, 'just what I need. Another restless night of nightmares about those weird monsters. Might as well get up.'

I rolled out of bed and walked to the bathroom hoping that my brother wouldn't wake up to the creaking floor. As I flipped on the light, I looked in the mirror. My wavy brown hair was a mess. There were dark circles under my bright green eyes that were bloodshot from the lack of sleep.

'I haven't been able to sleep since that new girl, Rukia, came to my school. I wonder if that has anything to do with my insomnia,' I thought as I turned the shower on full blast, 'but why would she have anything to do with me not sleeping. That makes no sense.'

"Satoshi, I'm leaving!"

"Ok! Have fun at school Chiki!"

Yeah right. I slammed the front door as I left our little house. My name is Chiki Nakayama. I'm a fifteen year old high school student. I'm usually a very happy person, but with a total of eight straight days of going to bed at midnight and waking up at exactly 3:33 a.m., I'm quite unhappy and irritable.

"What a beautiful day." I stretched my arms up towards the sky as I yawned those words. Yet then again, it usually was nice during the spring. I continued on my way to school until I saw Ichigo and Rukia up ahead. I was going to yell after them, but the weirdest thing happened.

Ichigo took out a stuffed lion and grabbed a little green pill out of its mouth.

"What the heck?" I muttered.

Ichigo swallowed the pill and another Ichigo popped out, but he was wearing some weird black outfit and had a giant sword. The Ichigo in the school uniform jumped up and ran away.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" school Ichigo screamed as he ran.

"What is going on?" I asked no one in particular. I looked down at my phone. 7:35.

"If I don't hurry I'm going to be late, but I really want to know what's going on." I stopped to think and then I took off after weird Ichigo.

**Kabei Misuteri**

"I'm gonna be late! I'm gonna be late!" I screamed as I ran out the door of my house. I mean I hate school, but if I'm late one more time I'm going to get another detention. I can not afford another detention.

My name is Kabei Misuteri. I'm fifteen years old. I'm just your typical high school student. Well not too typical. I have purple hair. It's natural, but I still got a weeks worth of detentions for my failure to 'properly explain why I had dyed my hair'. Needless to say, I hate authority figures.

I was running as fast as my legs could go. Unfortunately that isn't very fast. I'm not the most athletic person in the world. I sprinted two blocks before I was out of breath. There was no way I was getting to school on time, so I slowed down to a walk so I wouldn't kill myself.

I got out my phone and looked at the time. 7:45. I was going to be very late.

"AHA!" I screamed causing a few people to stare. Well, I had a good reason to. I thought of an old shortcut that I used to use. I turned down an alley and continued my rushed walk.

As I got to the end of the alley, I saw Rukia fly by with Ichigo dressed in funny black clothes.

"Well at least I'm no the only one that is going to be late," I muttered to myself, "wait a minute. Why is Ichigo wearing black samurai-ninja looking clothes?'

I stepped out onto the sidewalk only to be tackled to the ground by some idiot that wasn't watching where they were going.

"-"

"Shut up Chiki. I can't believe you're running late too."

"Well, I actually wasn't," Figures. "but I saw Ichigo eat this pill and then he turned into weird Ichigo, and then school Ichigo ran away screaming for some reason."

"Your mouth keeps moving, but the only thing coming out is a bunch of gibberish."

"BUT ITS TRUE!"

"I suggest we get moving if we want to find out what's up cuz Ichigo and Rukia are way up there."

The two of us took off running after our classmates.

"_**!'**_

We stopped dead in our tracks as we saw the giant monster loom overhead.

**Hoshiko Hikari**

"Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay My, oh my what a wonderful day! Plenty of sunshine heading my way Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay!" I sang as I skipped along the streets of the Seireitei. The wind whipped through my blonde pigtails as I went on my way.

My name is Hoshiko Hikari. I'm not even going to go into how old I actually am, but I look about fifteen. I have long blonde hair and bright blue eyes, and I'm rather touchy when it comes to my height considering I'm only 4' 2''. I'm a soul reaper. Lieutenant of the Tenth division under Captain Toshiro Hitsugaya. I call him To-chan though.

I was supposed to be doing paperwork, but it was just such a nice day that I couldn't bring myself to sit in that stuffy office. Plus paperwork is so tedious and boring.

"Mister Bluebird on my shoulder It's the truth, it's actch'll Ev'rything is satisfactch'll Zip-a-dee-doo-dah, zip-a-dee-ay Wonderful feeling, wonderful day!" I continued to sing as I made my way past the Eleventh Division.

"OOF!" I fell on my butt.

"That certainly wasn't the most beautiful noise I've ever heard."

"YUMICHIKA!" I tackled my favorite feather-browed, purple-eyed pretty boy to the ground.

"Get off of me! You're getting me full of dirt! Now I'm going to have to go change!" He yelled as he pushed me off.

"It's just a little dirt. What's the big deal?"

"JUST A LITTLE DIRT! A LITTLE DIRT CAN MAKE SOMEONE VERY UGLY!"

"THERE'S NOTHING ON YOU! I CAN'T EVEN SEE THE SLIGHTEST HINT OF DIRT, DUST, OR ANYTHING ELSE SO MICROSCOPIC THAT IT WOULD TAKE CAPTAIN KUROTSUCHI'S EQUIPMENT TO SEE IT!"

"Whatever. I'm still going to go change. Oh, and one more thing, stop yelling. It's such an ugly thing to do," Yumichika said as he strutted away.

I stood there with my mouth gaping open in disbelief that anyone, especially a guy, could be that finicky with their clothes.

"That pompous, egotistical, self-centered, semi-gay, pret-"

"HOSHIKO HIKARI! GET OVER HERE NOW!"

I turned around to see To-chan standing down the road where I just was. His arms were crossed and he looked rather upset. Actually, he was seething with anger.

'uh-oh,' I thought as I very slowly turned around.

**Like I said it's going to start out rough! Please review! But nothing mean, only constructive criticism please!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2! Yay! I'm going to be getting a deviant art profile soon and I'll have pictures of my characters on it! I'll let you know when that happens.**

**Disclaimer**** I do not own Bleach. I only own the three girls and any characters you don't recognize!**

**Chiki Nakayama**

"KABEI, WHAT IS THAT THING?" I screamed at the top of my lungs. The large monster loomed over us.

"WOULD YOU GET OFF OF ME! IT'S NOT GONNA HELP US IF YOU'RE CLINGING ONTO ME!" Kabei screamed at me. I let go of her and turned around to see two more of the same creature.

"WE'RE GOING TO DIE! I'M NEVER GOING TO FALL IN LOVE, GET MARRIED, AND HAVE KIDS BECAUSE I'M GOING TO BE EATEN BY MONSTERS!" I was in tears now. "AT LEAST I'M GOING TO DIE WITH MY BEST FRIEND!"

I turned to look at Kabei who was running back down the alley she had came from. My mouth dropped open. She just runs off to let me die alone! We've been friends since we were like two! How dare she!

"CHIKI, DUCK!"

I turned around only to be hit in the head with the lid to a trashcan.

"_Chiki, wake up. Wake up Chiki! I SAID WAKE UP!"_

_I shot up, and found myself face to face with a blonde man wearing a funny green hat, who was poking me with some sort of walking stick._

"_Who are you and where am I?" _

"_I don't believe you don't know who I am. I think I might cry," the funny man said as he started to sniffle._

"_Oh, please don't cry funny man! I really don't know who you are though! Please tell me!" I pleaded as I fell to my knees begging him not to cry. I don't like seeing people cry. It makes me cry._

"_HAHAHA! I was never going to cry. I know full well that you don't know who I am!" _

"_WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT TO ME?" _

"_I like to mess with people. And besides, that panicked look of yours is so cute."_

_I looked away as I blushed. Wait! He still hasn't told me who he was or anything!_

"_Hey! Funny guy! Who are you?"_

"_Oh right. I'm your conscience, and you are in your subconscious right now."_

_I quirked my eyebrow. I had no idea what he was talking about. I must be dead. Surely, Kabei killed me with that metal lid. _

"_Before you even ask, you're not dead. You're just knocked out."_

"_So my body is still laying on the ground out there, and I can't do anything to save myself and Kabei?" I asked Conscience._

"_Well, there is a way. Have you noticed how you and your friend were the only ones on the street that could see those monsters?"_

"_Well, now that I think about it. Everyone else was just acting normal. We must have looked like idiots."_

"_HAHAHAHA! I should say so! But do you know why they couldn't see them?"_

_I shook my head not wanting him to stop explaining what was going on._

"_Those monsters are evil spirits. Only those who have a large amount of spiritual energy can see them."_

"_QUESTION!" I screamed as I raised my hand, "I've never been able to see them before, so why can I suddenly see them?"_

"_You'll find that out soon enough, but when you wake up, hold your arm out and snap your fingers and say 'supa-ku' it'll help. Just trust me," he said and he disappeared._

"_Wait a minute…dang it. What was that supposed to mean? supa-ku."_

_Well now I knew what I was supposed to do. Now I just had to wake up._

**Kabei Misuteri**

I ran down the alley that I had just walked through to find something to defend me and Chiki with. Chiki was standing in the middle of the monsters screaming about not being able to get married and have kids.

"That'll work," I said as I picked up the lid to a trashcan that was lying on the ground. I threw it at one of the monsters, but thanks to my unathletic arms…I missed badly, "CHIKI, DUCK!" I screamed, but of course she looked over at me and the lid hit her square in the forehead and knocked her out.

"C'mon Chiki. You idiot."

Now what was I supposed to do? There were several of those monsters, Chiki was knocked out, and nobody else can see those things. At least Chiki fell up against the building, so it looks like she's just sitting.

"What am I gonna do? I have no way to defend myself," I began to lose my cool. This is bad, "CRAP!"

One of those monsters was getting ready to attack Chiki. I ran in between them and threw my arm up in a desperate attempt to defend myself. I was expecting to feel my arm being gnawed off, but instead I looked up and there was some sort of black mist like shield coming out of my arm.

"_**WHAT IS THIS? ARE YOU A SOUL REAPER, LITTLE GIRL?**_" the monster growled at me.

"A what? What's a soul reaper?"

"_**GROOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAH!**_" the other monsters began to close in on us.

"Crap," I muttered to myself. I threw my other arm up hoping another shield would come out, but instead a glowing purple disk shot out of my arm. It hit the monster in the head and it disappeared.

"Well that's a cool trick."

I lost my focus for only a second when I said that, but that gave the monster I was holding back with my shield just enough time to throw me away.

**CRACK!** I hit the side of a building really hard, and I'm almost positive that my arm just snapped. The cracking sound was sickening.

Chiki was still unconscious. There was no way I could get to her in time as the monster closed in on her.

"CHIKI WAKE UP!"

**Hoshiko Hikari**

"Do you see how much paperwork is piled on your desk? What makes you think that you could just run off and leave it? Are you even listening to me?" To-chan was lecturing me about my paperwork. I, however, was not listening to him, but instead, I was staring out the window.

"DO I HAVE TO _**DEMOTE**_ YOU _LIEUTENANT_?" A smirk creped across his face.

"You wouldn't dare _CAPTAIN_," I said my eyes narrowing as I turned away from the window. I gave him my best evil look, though it's hard for me to do because of my childish features.

We stared each other down until I thought I would have the element of surprise on my side. I sprang out of my chair in an attempt to tackle To-chan to the ground and then make a break for it. Unfortunately that didn't work. Instead, of him falling to the ground, he casually stepped out of the way, and I fell flat on my face. I was going to feel that tomorrow.

He just chuckled at me and sat down at his desk. I just stayed on the floor, laying face down in defeat.

"It's your own fault. You should know by now that tackling me to the ground isn't going to work, Hoshiko," he said in that arrogant matter of fact tone of his.

"sceph phu caphter."

"I can't understand you when your face is planted in the floor."

"I SAID SCREW YOU _CAPTAIN_!" I screamed, lifting my head off the floor. I got up and moved myself to the couch, where I resumed my defeated position.

"That paperwork isn't going to do itself, _LIEUTENANT_," he said. I could feel his turquoise eyes boring into me. I hate it when he stares at me. It always makes me cave. Partly because it makes me blush, and _I do not need him seeing that_. And the other part because it's such an icy glare, when he's upset with me anyways.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" I screamed finally giving up. I got up from the couch and moved over to my own desk. My desk with the stacks upon stacks of paperwork. I shot To-chan another glare before I sat down. He was still staring at me. Crap. A stupid blush started to creep across my face. I quickly looked the other way.

**Well tell me what you think so far! Review please!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Here's Chapter 3! The chapters will start getting longer I swear!**

**Disclaimer: ****I do not own Bleach! I only own the three girls and characters that you don't recognize!

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**Chiki Nakayama**

"CHIKI WAKE UP!"

I woke with a start. My eyes shot open. Then I remembered where I was and what was going on. I looked over at Kabei laying on the ground holding her arm with a grimace on her face. I immediately got very angry. Those monsters had hurt my best friend and now they were going to pay.

They were coming closer with every passing second. I remembered what Conscience said, "_when you wake up, hold your arm out and snap your fingers and say 'supa-ku' it'll help. Just trust me." _

"SUPA-KU!" I yelled as I snapped my fingers. A flame shot out of my hand and hit one of the monsters.

"!" it growled and then disappeared.

"YES! I DID IT!" I yelled and punched the air. Suddenly, I was grabbed from behind. The monster lifted me off the ground and held me eye level. I squirmed around as much as I could, but it only tightened its grip on me. I could feel the air being forcibly pushed out of my lungs.

"CHIKI!" I heard Kabei scream from somewhere behind me. I tried to turn my head, but I couldn't move. For a brief moment, I almost gave up, but suddenly, I heard something whistle by my ear on the left. I opened my eyes just in time to see weird Ichigo slice the monster down the middle of its head.

It disappeared just like the other one. When its hand disintegrated, I landed on the ground with a loud, very ungraceful sounding thump. All of the monsters were gone by the time I could stand up. I watched Ichigo run over to Kabei with a worried look on his face.

"those two totally dig each other," I thought. I looked away only to see Rukia running towards us with a cell phone in her hand. She ran up to me with a concerned look.

"Chiki, are you okay? What happened to your hand?"

For the first time, I looked at my hand. It was burned. Very badly, burned. I must have still been on an adrenaline high. I hadn't noticed the pain until Rukia pointed out that it was burned.

"Yeah. I guess I'm okay," I said still mystified at what had just happened.

"NO, I WILL NOT CALM DOWN ICHIGO! I WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!"

Rukia and I turned around to see what was going on. Apparently, Kabei wanted answers. And she wanted them now.

"Ichigo, I think we should take them to Urahara's place to get them fixed up and explain what's happening to them," Rukia said. She had an uncharacteristically stern look on her face. Now that I think about it, what is happening to me and Kabei?

**Kabei Misuteri**

Despite my protests, I found myself walking to this Urahara guy's house. As we walked, I couldn't help but stare at Chiki's hand. Whatever it was she did. It hurt her. I could tell by that look on her face. Ichigo and Rukia may not have noticed, but I did.

I looked away from Chiki, and turned my attention to Ichigo and Rukia. When did Ichigo learn to use a sword and fight demons? And Rukia. Who exactly is she? She certainly wasn't an average transfer student like everyone thought.

We came to a dead end that had this little shack looking place at the end of it.

"You can't be serious. You took us to a shack," I said rather bluntly.

"This the Urahara Shop. I told you that everything would be explained. So let's go inside…unless, you changed your mind Kabei," Rukia said as she walked towards the 'shop'.

"Er…fine."

We walked in and there was a little girl with black hair in pigtails and some in her face sweeping the floor.

"Hi Ururu. Is Kisuke here?" Rukia asked smiling sweetly at the little girl.

"Um, yes. Just a moment," she said quietly and then went in back to find this Kisuke guy.

"Is my little Rukia here?" I heard someone say. The door to the back room opened and a guy in green clothes with blonde hair and a funny hat came out. He had a cane, but he didn't look very old.

"CONSCIENCE!" Chiki screamed. She jumped up and hugged the man.

"Excuse me?" the man I'm presuming to be Kisuke Urahara chuckled as he pried Chiki off of him.

I couldn't help but bust out laughing. It got to the point where I was rolling on the floor.

"Chiki, are you sure I didn't hit you too hard with that lid?" I laughed as I held my sides.

Before it could go any farther, Rukia spoke up.

"I think it's time we explained things to them. Should we sit down?"

"Oh yes. Of course." Urahara said as he directed us to his coffee table.

"Kisuke, these girls have spiritual powers. Their spirit energy is close to that of a full-fledged soul reaper. I've seen it myself earlier today. They were cornered by four or five hollows. They both have rather unique abilities, and their spirit energy must be higher than what I think to attract so many hollows," Rukia said.

I looked over at Chiki who was just as dumbfounded as I was.

**Hoshiko Hikari**

I _finally _finished all of the paperwork on my desk. It took me three hours. I could have been done sooner if I didn't have such a short attention span.

"To-chan." He wasn't responding. I hate it when he ignores me. I got up to go bother him.

When I looked at him, his head was laying on his desk on top of his arms. His paperwork was thrown everywhere. I picked up his arm and let it fall back on his desk with a thump. He was definitely asleep. A sly grin spread across my face.

I carefully took his pen that was still in his hand. I dipped it in the ink tray and wrote 'baka-taicho' on his forehead. I backed away to observe my handiwork. I must admit, I AM a genius.

I decided to let him sleep, so I walked over to the bookshelf and began snooping through the, "Hoshiko, DO NOT TOUCH", box. I pulled out a comic book. I snickered to myself. It must have been one he bought in the World of the Living. I put it back in the box. I pulled over a chair so I could actually see in it.

There really wasn't anything else in there that was interesting. Except the picture of the top ten ranked officers of the Tenth Division from last year. Who knew he was actually sentimental? I got off of the chair and looked back at the white haired captain.

"I should probably move him to the couch or he's going to be really cranky in the morning, and I'm going to have to put up with it," I whispered to myself.

I walked over to him. This shouldn't be too hard. He was only two inches taller than me and he couldn't have weighed too much more. I mean, I'm not the strongest person, and he definitely has more muscle than I do but still.

I tried to pick him up. "Crap!" I fell over onto the floor with him on top. Just when I tried to get up, Rangiku, Third Seat of the Tenth Division, burst in the door.

"HOSHIKO! THE HEAD CAPTAIN WANTS TO SEE YOU!"

"Rangiku! Shhhhhhhh!" I whispered from the floor. She waltzed over and held her mouth as she tried to not crack up. She bent over and picked up To-chan and put him on the couch for me.

"Thanks. I'm going to go see what the Head Captain wants," and I was off.

I walked in the doors of the First Division and immediately got down on one knee. If there was one person I showed the utmost respect for, it was Head Captain Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto.

"Lieutenant Hoshiko Hikari, I have an assignment for you."

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**Yes I know Chiki's powers are like Roy Mustang's! My friend loves Full Metal Alchemist so I did that for her! Please review!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Here's the next installment! Hope you all like! And just to clarify this because I know that the Japanese write last names first. I have their names written with their first names first and last names last. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach! I only own the three girls and any other characters you may not recognize!

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**Chiki Nakayama**

I sat there horribly confused. What does Rukia mean by spiritual powers? What's a soul reaper? And were those things attacking Kabei and me hollows? What exactly were they? It was all so confusing.

"You can start by telling us what those monsters were, and why Ichigo looks the way he does," Kabei said. She wanted answers more than I did. I would be happy just to wake up and find it was all a dream.

"Those monsters are called hollows. They are the souls of humans who never made it to the Soul Society. If a soul doesn't go to the Soul Society, it eventually becomes empty, which is where the name hollow comes from. They also eat the good souls, and sometimes, the souls of humans with high reiatsu," Kisuke explained as Rukia held up these drawings of a white bunny and a black bunny. They sucked, really bad.

"Why do your drawings suck so bad?" Kabei asked. She had her bored look on her face. Ichigo snickered.

"That's besides the point! Are you two at least following this so far?' Rukia said taking offense to Kabei's comment. We both nodded.

"Ichigo looks the way he does because he is a substitute soul reaper. Rukia gave him her powers so that he could protect his family from a hollow. Now a soul reaper is a spiritual guardian that regulates the number of souls in the World of the Living, where we are now, and the Soul Society," Kisuke continued.

"So these soul reapers, do they have this rei...whatever? And are there a lot of them?" I asked as I raised my hand.

"Yes. Soul reapers have tons of reiatsu. And yes again. There are many soul reapers," Kisuke answered as he patted my head. I was so confused. Kabei seemed to be absorbing this better than I was.

"So what exactly is this 'Soul Society' you keep mentioning?" Kabei asked.

"The Soul Society is where departed souls go after the body dies," Kabei and me both looked taken aback as Kisuke said this, "the soul reapers reside in the heart of the Soul Society in the Seireitei."

"What about all of the religions in this world?" I asked. It was Rukia who spoke up this time.

"Humans fear what cannot be seen and respect that which cannot be explained. Humans want an explanation for what happens when you die, so when one gets an idea a religion is created."

I fell quiet when she said this. She had a point about humans wanting explanations, that's why we were here after all.

"Let me get this straight, Chiki and I have developed some sort of spiritual powers from hanging around Ichigo, who has an enormous amount of this reiatsu stuff. Am I correct?" Kabei said. She always was a lot smarter than she lead on.

"You are dead correct. And I have a hunch you two are not the only ones either, but enough of this for now. It's getting late, and I bet all of you are missed at your respective homes right now," Kisuke said as he got up to show us to the door.

As I walked out I could have swore I heard him say that things were finally starting to get interesting.

**Kabei Misuteri**

I can't believe everything that's happened today. I was walking along the river after Chiki left me. I didn't have anyone at home to worry about me because my kinda sorta big brother Itsuki works until 3 a.m. tonight.

When I left my house this morning, I never thought I would end up skipping school, fighting hollows, and get drawn into this whole afterlife, good soul, bad soul thing. I stopped and sat on a bench staring out at the water. This is my favorite way to relax and unwind, especially after today.

About two hours passed, I decided it was time to head home. I had just turned down my street. I'm not sure what possessed me to look back, but I did. Rukia was running towards me, but I didn't think she knew I was there, so I jumped behind someone's bushes.

"I have gotten too soft. I don't need these useless emotions," she muttered as she ran by. When she was gone, I got out and began walking towards my house. I looked up to look at the moon, when I saw a red haired guy wearing the same thing Ichigo was wearing, sitting on a pole. He looked right at me, but I didn't think he knew that I could see him.

'he must be a soul reaper," I thought to myself. And as soon as he appeared he vanished. I'm not sure why, but I began to worry about Rukia, so I took off in the direction she went.

When I finally caught up to her, she was being attacked by that red haired soul reaper. He must have had someone else with him. There was another soul reaper, but this one had a much more refined aura about him, and he had a white cloak on over his back.

I kept myself hidden to see what would happen. I looked away and saw Uryuu Ishida walking towards the battle.

'Crap. He's going to walk right into it!' He walked right up to Rukia and the soul reapers. He must have been able to see them too. After some inaudible conversation, Uryuu made a bow and arrow using what I assume was his reiatsu. Unfortunately for him, the red haired guy defeated him easily with two strokes of his blade. He made it look like child's play.

I'm not sure what I was thinking. I came out of hiding and walked up to Rukia.

"Hey Rukia. Are these friends of yours?" I asked, trying to sound innocent as I looked up at the soul reapers.

"Kabei! You have to get out of here now!" Rukia yelled at me, but I just stood there and stared at the two 'real" soul reapers before me. Up close, I could feel how much stronger they were than Ichigo.

"What's this? She can see us!" the red haired one was astonished by the fact that I could see them.

"Yes I can. If I didn't I wouldn't be talking to you right now, would I?" I asked with a smart aleck tone of voice. That got him mad. He came at me and Rukia with his sword. Apparently he had no guilt attacking women.

I started frantically flapping my arm trying to get that shield from earlier to appear, but it wouldn't.

"Dang it! It worked earlier today!" I screamed. I just covered my head and waited for the impact, but it never came. Instead, I heard the sound of two swords clashing. I looked up to see bright orange hair.

"ICHIGO!" Rukia and I both said at the same time. I must say Ichigo looked pissed. He pushed me and Rukia back and began to fight the red haired soul reaper.

**Hoshiko Hikari**

I was on my way to the World of the Living. Head Captain Yamamoto was having me bring back Captain Byakuya Kuchiki and Lieutenant Renji Abarai. They were sent to bring Rukia back about a week ago, but they still haven't returned to the Seireitei. I was also specifically told to make sure they didn't do anything to any humans. I know how those two can get sometimes.

I always hated going through the Dangai Precipice World. It was dark, and I am petrified of the dark. To make it even worse, there were bones all over the place. It really creeps me out.

"Yes! LIGHT!" I screamed as I ran towards the end of the tunnel. I came out in the middle of a completely deserted street. Granted, it seemed that it was really late. I opened my soul pager to see if I could find Captain Kuchiki and Renji.

"Bingo! I gotcha now." and I took off to meet up with them.

I arrived at the scene to find Renji fighting this orange haired kid. I stayed in the bushes to scope out the situation. I think Captain Kuchiki could tell I was somewhere nearby though. From where, I was standing I could see three other people. One was Rukia. I was almost certain of that. The other two were human. One was a girl with purple hair and the other a boy. He seemed like he had taken a beating.

'I wonder if those humans can see us?' I already knew the answer to that, but I thought it anyway. I looked back over to Renji. Strawberry head was gaining an advantage on him, but I knew it wouldn't last long. Not with Byakuya there anyways.

Just as I thought that, Captain Kuchiki made his move. He used flash step and sliced strawberry head straight through his shoulder. The purple haired girl ran over to him, and then I saw Rukia get up and go over to Byakuya.

Captain Kuchiki was getting ready to cut through both the girl and strawberry head and deal the final blow.

_**CLINK! **_I barely got there in time to stop Captain Kuchiki's blade.

"Lieutenant Hikari, what is the meaning of this?" he asked me in his cold deadpan tone. He backed off, and I stood up.

"The Head Captain sent me to bring you back to the Seireitei. He thinks that you've been gone to long, but I see you've found Rukia just in time," I said as I looked at him.

"I see. Now stand aside, I must finish these ignorant brats off."

"I'm sorry Captain Kuchiki, but I'm under strict orders from the Head Captain to keep the two of you from interfering with the humans, so I must ask you to please stand down," I said and then looked back at the two behind me, "Besides, the kid will be dead in an hour anyways."

He looked down at me as I looked up at him; his gaze unwavering.

"Fine. If it's the Head Captain's orders, then it cannot be helped," he said as he put his Zanpakuto back in its sheath.

"Are you ready?" I turned my head towards Renji, who had the Senkaimon open and ready. Captain Kuchiki, Renji, and Rukia walked through. I looked back, and I could have sworn I saw someone else with a green striped hat standing there. I chuckled to myself. If its who I thought it was, then we haven't seen the last of those three humans. I walked through the Senkaimon back to the Seireitei.

When I got back to the Squad Ten barracks, I went to the office to check in with To-chan.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU? YOU JUST RUN OFF AND NOT TELL ME!" he yelled. I had just walked in the door, and I was already in trouble.

**Chiki Nakayama**

I woke up the next morning to a horrible pain in my hand. The burned skin and muscle was charred and it hurt. Bad. I looked at the clock. 6:00 a.m., I finally got a full night of sleep.

I got up and checked my phone. I had three texts from Kabei.

"_A bunch of soul reapers just came and took Rukia away, and Ichigo is hurt really bad!"_ is how the first one read. The next two were reassuring me everything was okay.

'Talk about bipolar,' I thought as I closed my phone. I have to admit I was surprised, but I wasn't at the same time. I walked as quietly as I could to the bathroom to get ready. I didn't want to attract my brother's attention. If he saw my hand, he would die.

About an hour later, I met up with Kabei on my way to school. She had a really depressed look on her face.

"So, Rukia is really gone?" I asked to try and find out what went down last night.

"Yeah. A couple soul reapers came and took her back to the soul society last night, and stripped Ichigo of his powers. They almost killed us," she had a slight waver in her voice. It scared her. Whatever she saw last night scared her.

"Is Ichigo ok?"

"He's fine now. That Urahara guy showed up right after the soul reapers left."

She sounded awful. I decided that I shouldn't press the matter any further. We walked in silence the rest of the way.

At school, Ichigo pulled us over into a corner.

"Have you two noticed that everyone has forgotten Rukia, and that she even existed?" he asked. My eyes widened. He was right. Usually, Keigo was pounding everyone with questions when Rukia wasn't at school.

"Are you saying that those soul reapers wiped everyone's memories of Rukia?" Kabei asked.

Ichigo nodded. Just then, Orihime, Chad, and Uryuu walked up to us.

"Do you guys know where Rukia is?" Orihime asked innocently.

"You still remember Rukia?" I asked. All three of them nodded.

We all looked at each other for a few minutes. I had a feeling what Ichigo was going to say next.

"I think all of us need to go to Urahara's shop after school," he said. My eyes brightened.

"YAY! I GET TO SEE CONSCIENCE!" I screamed. The whole class turned and looked at me. I silently put my arms down and turned bright red.

After school, I found Ichigo and Kabei in front of the building. Orihime, Chad, and Uryuu were close behind.

When we got to the shop, I immediately made a break for the door. Kisuke was just coming out. I launched myself at him.

"CONSCIENCE!" I screamed, clinging to him.

"Well hello there Chiki. I see you're in a good mood," He said prying me off, "now won't you all come inside."

**Kabei Misuteri**

We all walked into Urahara's shop. As soon as we all sat down, his face became very serious.

"Now I'm sure you all know why you are here. Rukia was taken back to the Soul Society last night," he looked at me and Ichigo, "some of you saw it happen first hand. The rest of you have just now heard about this earlier today."

I remember last night so clearly. Those soul reapers were powerful. I was scared witless when the one with black hair came at me and Ichigo. Then that little blonde one, she saved us and then just leaves Ichigo there to die. I guess I just don't get it. What have I gotten myself into?

"Is something wrong Kabei?"

I looked up. Everyone was looking at me. I just realized I was shaking. I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked at Ichigo. He had a fire in his eyes like I had never seen before.

"How many of you want to save Rukia?" The question came out of Kisuke's mouth like a ton of bricks. Everyone tensed up. It was Orihime that raised her hand first, then Chiki's, Chad's, and Uryuu's. I didn't know Rukia very well, but I wasn't going to abandon her like this. I raised my hand.

After I raised mine, Ichigo's arm came off of my shoulder and raised into the air. A strange little smirk spread across Kisuke's face.

"None of you know exactly what rescuing Rukia entails, yet you all still want to go to the Soul Society anyways. I'm shocked."

That must have offended Chiki in a way. She jumped out of her seat and glared at Urahara.

"If you think any one of us would abandon Rukia after everything she has done for us, then you are sadly mistaken! I may have only known her for a month, but that doesn't change anything! People who abandon their friends are worse than trash!" she yelled. Orihime stood up next to her.

"That's right! We would never leave Rukia!" Orihime said. Kisuke still had a smirk on his face. It was bothering me. He was concocting something. I could tell.

"Very well. All of you with have to train. You are all far to weak to go to the Soul Society in your current states," Kisuke said. He was looking directly at Ichigo when he said this.

"What do you mean train?" I asked him. I had a feeling I knew what the answer was, but I wanted to hear it come out of his mouth, but it wasn't Kisuke who answered me.

"the answer to that is simple. If the six of you don't have control over your powers, you will die like dogs in the Soul Society." I looked around to see who said that. To my surprise and everyone else's, it was a cat.

**Hoshiko Hikari**

It had only been about a day since I had went to the World of the Living and came back. There really hasn't been much excitement. I was currently waiting for To-chan to get back from the captains' meeting. It was so boring around the division when he wasn't around to bother.

I couldn't find Rangiku anywhere either. She was probably out drinking. I grabbed the comic that I found in the 'Hoshiko DO NOT TOUCH' box and sat down on the couch to read it. The title was Ouran High School Host Club. It looked really girly, definitely something I wouldn't expect him to read. I opened it and read through the first couple chapters.

"This is freakin' hilarious!" I burst out laughing. Unfortunately for me, I didn't hear the door open behind me.

"What's hilarious, Hoshiko?" I heard a highly unamused voice ask behind me.

"Uh…w…w..well..nothing at all To-chan!" I lied, badly. I jumped up and hid the book behind my back. "Really? Then what is behind your back?"

"NOTHING!" I stuck the book in my sash and held up my hands, "See?"

"You might as well quit while you're ahead," he said. He started to walk over to his desk. I slowly began to take the book out of my sash. I turned around and was heading for the door, when I felt someone grab me from behind.

"AAAAAAAHH!"

"Give that book back right now!" my angry little captain demanded. I, however, was not about to loose this little game.

Instead of squirming to get away like he expected, I made my best shy face, leaned back into his chest, and stuck my head in the crook of his neck.

"Toshiro, you're hurting me," I whimpered while averting my gaze away from his.

"I-I-I..uh…I'm so sorry!" he stuttered. He immediately turned bright red and let go. I made a mad dash out the door. I used flash step, shunpo, to get a large lead on him since I knew it wouldn't be long before he started chasing me.

It wasn't long before he was chasing me like a bat outta hell through the Seireitei. He was getting stranger looks than me because he kept screaming something about wanting to finish the book. Knowing this, I kept taunting him. I finally skidded to a stop, and he crashed into me from behind.

The reason I stopped? I saw Captain Kurotsuchi up ahead. He scared me. A LOT.

I decided that I had tortured him enough for one day and gave him his book back. He wouldn't talk to me, or look at me for that matter, the whole way back to the Tenth Division. When we got back, I finally asked him what the meeting was about.

If it was possible, his face got even more serious.

"Rukia Kuchiki is going to be executed thirty days from now," he said very solemnly. For once in my life, I was speechless

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**So what did you all think? Please review!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Yay! New chapter! Chiki gets a glove, Kabei gets yelled at, and Hoshiko gets in some serious trouble! Hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach! I only own the three girls and any characters you don't recognize!  
**

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**Chiki Nakayama **

"IT'S A KITTY!" I screamed. I jumped up from my seat and squeezed the black cat.

"Let go of me! Let me go right now!" the cat yelled. I let it go and it scratched me across the face.

"That wasn't very nice Yoruichi." Kisuke said. He got up and patted my head, "Are you okay Chiki?"

I nodded my head as I held my face. I'm not sure what it was, but there was something about him that I liked.

"Well everyone. This is Yoruichi. She is going to train Kabei, Chad, Uryuu, and Orihime."

Uryuu got a really bizarre look on his face. It looked like he was going to throw up. That would be gross. He suddenly got up and went towards the door.

"I prefer to train alone." that was all he said as he walked out the door.

"What about Ichigo and Chiki?" Kabei asked. Kisuke smirked.

"I need to train Ichigo, so he can get his soul reaper powers back. As for Chiki, I'm going to start her off on her training. I want to see what I can do about preventing her hands from being burned. Any worse than what they already are anyways." it was then that I noticed that his hand was still on my head.

"Ten days from now is when we will leave. You have ten days to get stronger," Yoruichi said.

Kabei, Chad, and Orihime left the shop with Yoruichi. I was still sitting there with Kisuke and Ichigo. Kisuke took his hand off of my head and walked over to the corner of the room. He flipped the panels up to reveal a ladder that must have led to the basement.

"This place has a basement?" Ichigo asked scratching his head.

"I suppose you could call it that if you want, my friend, but it is actually an underground training facility," Kisuke said, "now get over here."

Great. A ladder. I've never been able to use a ladder and not fall. Hopefully the ground at the bottom was soft. Kisuke and Ichigo went down. I just stood at the top looking down at them.

"C'mon Chiki! Are you scared of heights or something?" Ichigo yelled up to me.

"NO!" that was a lie.

"Well c'mon then!" Kisuke yelled.

I took one step, and fell. I had one of those sensations that people say happen to them when they're in a dangerous situation. Where your life flashes before your eyes. I couldn't even bring myself to scream.

The pain of hitting the ground never came though. Instead, I felt myself being caught by a pair of strong arms. I opened my eyes that were squeezed shut. I saw Kisuke looking down at me with a quirked eyebrow.

"I guess not burning yourself isn't the only thing we need to work on. Now is it?" he asked laughing. I tried to laugh, but it came out as more of a hic noise. I needed to take a moment. That was a for sure thing.

**Kabei Misuteri**

As I left Urahara's shop, I felt like a complete idiot. I was following a cat for one thing, and to make it worse it was a talking cat. Then next to me, I had Orihime talking about this new red bean paste recipe that sounded absolutely disgusting. As usual, Chad was completely stoic.

"hey cat, where are we going?" I finally asked.

"my name is Yoruichi, and you will address me as such. To answer your question, we are here."

In front of us was an old warehouse. I really couldn't believe what I was getting myself into. A few days ago, I didn't even believe in an afterlife. Now, it's like there is a whole new world out there that I've never seen.

We walked into the building. It was dusty and dirty. There were old boxes and random wood planks all over the floor. This is just sick.

"I'm assuming all of you are wondering what kind of training you will be doing, correct?" Yoruichi broke the silence. We all just kind of nodded our heads. "You're going to be working on controlling your spiritual pressure and energy."

The next four hours we worked on concentrating our energy into whatever areas of our body we used our powers from. For me it was my arms, Orihime uses her hairpins, and Chad uses his arm.

"Yoruichi, can't we do something else? This is boring! And all three of us are good at it now," I asked as I sat down on a crate with a bored expression on my face.

"We will move onto the next lesson when I think that you are ready. You three are good, but not good enough. Like I said before, if you cannot control your powers and use them at will, you will die like dogs in the Soul Society."

"Oh c'mon! How strong can they possibly be?" when I said this I could tell I had made Yoruichi mad. Orihime and Chad just watched our argument.

"HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN THOSE SOUL REAPERS THAT YOU, ICHIGO, AND URYUU ENCOUNTERED? THE ONES THAT ALMOST KILLED YOU?"

I felt my heart clench. At that moment, Yoruichi won the argument. I hate losing arguments, but she was right. Those three soul reapers I had seen that night were terrifyingly strong. I still hope I never have to fight one of them, but I had a feeling it was inevitable.

"You're right. I'm sorry. Let's continue training guys," I said to Chad and Orihime.

It was a few hours later when Yoruichi let us go home for the night. I was walking with Orihime. Chad had gone off by himself. I had never really talked to Orihime a lot before. It was always me and Ichigo or me and Chiki.

"So Kabei, what kinds of food do you like? I like all sorts of food, but especially food with red bean paste," Orihime said. It caught me off guard. No one has ever asked me a question like that before.

"Ummm, well I'm more of a snacker than anything. I like cheese flavored chips or crackers the best, I suppose…" I replied. I really didn't know how to answer that question.

"That sounds tasty! I'll have to try that sometime," she giggled.

I giggled too. Orihime just has that kind of affect on people. She's just so sweet and innocent. Her and Chiki are a lot alike in that way. That just made me smile all the more, but my face became serious again when I though of how Chiki and Ichigo were going through more intense training than Orihime, Chad, and I were.

"Kabei, what are you thinking about?" my face must have given her a clue that I was deep in thought.

"I was just thinking about Ichigo and Chiki. Wondering what they are going through."

She got a really interesting look on her face. "What do you think about Ichigo?"

I tucked a piece of my purple hair behind my ear and a small smile graced my lips. "Well, we've been friends for so long I guess I think a lot about him. I mean he's smart and funny. He may act like a jerk sometimes, but he really is a sweet guy."

"I see." there was something in her words that made it seem like she was reading more into it than I was. Orihime sure is an interesting girl.

**Hoshiko Hikari**

I was sitting on To-chan's desk as he was doing some paperwork. I was trying to be obnoxious without seeming like I was intentionally trying to be. I kept shifting around, making a popping noise with my sucker, telling jokes. Just about anything to get him to at least take a little break. He needed it.

"Could you please stop fidgeting?"

"Why?"

"It's bothering me." Bingo.

"Why?"

"It's making the desk move."

"Why?"

"Could you please get off of my desk at the very least?"

I was about to ask why again when the door opened up. Rangiku came stumbling in. She was so drunk. I could smell alcohol across the room.

"CAPTAIN! HOSHIKO! HOW ARE YOU GUYS?" her words were slurred and she was about to fall over. I looked back at To-chan. He looked very upset.

"MATSUMOTO! You are supposed to be on duty!" I snickered as he yelled at her. He then looked at me, "Don't even get me started on you! You could at least help with the paperwork or follow an order once in awhile! You know what just go to your room and put Rangiku back in hers. I'll finish up here." He said and then just turned around.

Not pressing the issue any further, I grabbed Rangiku and fled. Once I was back in my room, I looked at the clock. It was exactly 12 midnight. I climbed out the window and sat down on the roof. I can't sleep at night. It might have something to do with my Zanpakuto's abilities. I laid back to look at the stars.

About an hour later, I heard the door to my room open and close. I looked over at the window and saw To-chan climb out. He sat down next to me. We sat in silence for a while until he broke it.

"I didn't mean to snap on you earlier. I've just been stressed lately."

"Well no harm done. I should be the one apologizing. You're right, I don't listen to you or do any paperwork. I-" he just stuck his hand over my mouth to shut me up.

"You really do talk a lot," he said as he smirked at me. I pushed his hand away and fell back to look up at the stars again.

"Do you do this every night or just when I kick you out of the office?" he asked as he laid down next to me.

"I do this every night. For one I can never sleep, and two, I like it because you never see the same night sky twice. It's a lot like a person's memories. You may think you remember something perfectly, but you never remember the same thing twice to the point of perfectly remembering it," I said. I had a feeling I had confused him with my sudden sense of wisdom.

"The sky looks the same to me."

"That's because you're not really looking at it."

"How am I not looking at it? My eyes are open aren't they?"

"And you're supposed to be some sort of child prodigy? I bet you can't even tell me where the Big Dipper is."

He scooted closer to me and pointed out the Big Dipper. That was a little to easy.

"That was too easy. What's your astrological sign?"

"Sagittarius."

"Let's see…THERE IT IS!" I yelled pointing it out, "The sign of the archer. I'm a Capricorn, and that is…over…there. I'm just barely a Capricorn. My birthday is on the 22nd of December."

"That's a fitting birthday for you. The day of the winter solstice."

"I suppose it is. My father always used to mention that. It's the shortest and darkest day of the year, but everyday after that it gets a little bit brighter." The thought of my father brought an aching pain. To-chan must have noticed the grimace on my face because he quickly changed the subject.

"What other constellations can you point out?"

"There are hundreds of them. We could be out here all night, and I still couldn't point them all out to you." he quirked an eyebrow. Obviously, he didn't know much about the stars.

"We'll have to do this more often then. What's that big group of stars over there?" he asked pointing to what he was looking at.

"That's the Milky Way," I replied. He got a disgusted look on his face.

"What's that look for?"

"I hate milk."

"Clearly. No wonder you never grew,' I laughed. He just turned red and looked away.

We were out there for hours, pointing out constellations and talking. I remember pointing out Orion's Belt before falling asleep on the roof. The next morning, I woke up in my bed.

**Chiki Nakayama**

"Kisuke, why is Ichigo in a hole?' I asked as I looked down into the hole. It was really deep, and I had no idea how he was going to get out.

"Climbing out of that hole within three days will give him his soul reaper powers back. I won't go into the exact specifics of that because I don't want to confuse you too much," he said and smiled as he patted my head, "Now what I have for you is something to truly behold."

He pulled a box out of his coat. I opened it up and inside was a glove meant for a right hand. The color of it matched my green eyes perfectly.

"That glove is one of a kind. It's made of a special material that won't burn. It also has the ability to concentrate spiritual energy."

I slipped the glove on. It fit perfectly.

"Thank you Kisuke!" I yelled and hugged him. He laughed and put his hand on my head again.

"Now you won't burn those little hands of yours. I have three days to teach how to use that thing. Then I'm going to turn you over to Yoruichi."

"What are you going to do then?"

"I'm going to train Ichigo over there," he said pointing behind him to the hole, "but for now, let's focus on the task at hand. Like I said, that glove will concentrate your spirit energy. If you can't control how much energy you put into it, you're going to end up burning everything around you."

Great. I had to get the power that was the most destructive. I must have done something really bad in a former life to have deserved this. I noticed that Kisuke moved behind me. Probably to protect himself.

"I want you to use your power without restricting it."

I took a deep breath and brought my arm up.

"SUPA-KU!" I yelled as I snapped my fingers. I didn't hold anything back just as he said.

Fire burst from my fingers. It spread through the air, surrounding me and Kisuke. The intense heat making me sweat almost instantaneously. When the fire dissipated, the rocks around us were charred black. I looked back at Kisuke. His hat was reduced to cinders, and his face was black from soot.

"Yeah. We have to work on control. That is a definite must," he coughed from ash in his lungs.

"heheheh," I giggled sheepishly as I rubbed the back of my head. He came over to me and grabbed my hand, holding it up.

"At least your glove worked. Look, there isn't a single burn mark on it."

I looked at my glove. He was right. There wasn't anything on it, not even a speck of dirt. That didn't surprise me though. The heat from those flames would reduce anything to cinders.

Four hours later, my fingers were killing me. I spent four hours trying to reduce the amount of fire that came out of my hand. Four hours of snapping my fingers continuously. Finally I just collapsed.

"You're not too tired now are you?" Kisuke asked me. I just glared at him. He knew the answer to that, "C'mon! Let's keep going."

I grabbed onto a rock. There was no way I was getting up.

"C'mon Chiki." he was laughing at me now. He walked over to me and tried to pry me off of the rock. I just held on tighter. Unfortunately, he was a lot stronger than me. I went flying off of the rock and landed on my butt. I was not happy. I held my arm out, getting ready to snap my fingers.

"Looks like this is finally getting serious," he said as he looked at me. I watched, completely surprised, as he pulled a sword out of his cane.

He came at me with the full intent of truly attacking me. Not knowing what else to do I snapped my fingers. Now that I could control it better, well somewhat, the flames were right on target. He side-stepped to the right and dodged my flames, while still moving forward.

He swung his sword at my head with full force. Those two days me and Kabei spent at that tumbling camp in 3rd grade finally paid off, but not in the way I thought it would. I tucked and rolled out of the way barely dodging the blade. By the time I figured out where everything was at, he was coming at me again. Once again I rolled out of he way. I knew doing that wouldn't work a third time. He was too skilled a fighter to not pick up that that was all I could do to dodge.

I finally found enough time to attack again. This time when he dodged, he moved so fast I found him behind me with his sword pressed to my throat in a matter of two seconds.

"You have so much to learn, ma chère," he said. There was no hint of teasing in his voice at all. He was being dead serious, and I knew he was right. If everyone in the Soul Society could fight like he did, I was as good as dead. The thought of this scared me a bit.

He pulled his sword away from my throat and put it back inside the other part of his cane. All of the sudden his face became cheery again. Was he like bipolar or something?

"You can take a break now, ma chère," he said. Winking. I sat there totally confused. I decided just to drop it; that was probably the best thing to do.

**Kabei Misuteri**

Three days had past since we began training. Yoruichi had us mock fighting each other. I must say I'm lucky that I'm small and faster than Chad, or I probably would have been crushed into tiny pieces by now.

I was walking into the warehouse after school, when I was tackled by someone.

"Kabei! I MISSED YOU SO MUCH!" Chiki screamed. I pushed her off of me.

"have you gotten fatter? You just about crushed me you cow."

"I HAVE NOT! YOU'RE SO MEAN!" she yelled her eyes filling with tears.

I got up and dusted myself off, "I'm just telling it like it is."

Chad and Orihime walked in. Orihime going on about something she had for dinner last night. Yoruichi jumped down from the rafters of the building into the middle of the circle we were standing in.

"I see Miss Nakayama has joined us now. I have no idea what your current level is Chiki, so I'm going to have you fight Chad," Yoruichi said.

I thought she was going to have me fight Chiki for a second. I'm glad she didn't. There was no way I would be able to fight Chiki. Orihime and I moved back out of the way to let Chiki and Chad have some room.

Chiki stood across from Chad. She had this look on her face that I've never seen before. It was serious. I've known that girl for 14½ years, and I've never seen a serious look like that on her face. With the exception of her parents dying in that car accident when we were nine.

"SUPA-KU!" a stream of fire came out of her hand that now had a green glove on it. Chad barely got out of the way.

The armor on his arm appeared. He charged at Chiki. She rolled out of the way. Looks like tumbling camp paid off. It went on like that for a while. Chiki had more of an advantage than Chad because of her fighting style. Her long ranged attacks keeping Chad away from her. The only thing Chad could do was dodge and block her attacks. He couldn't attack her if he couldn't get close.

"SUPA-KU!" More flames shot out of Chiki's hand. This time they hit Chad and knocked him back. That must have been enough for Yoruichi.

"I see Kisuke has done okay with you," she looked at all of us, "you all realize that now we only have seven days before we leave. You all have seven days to get as strong as you can, then its off to the Soul Society."

I looked around at everyone. Everyone had a determined look on their faces. I could see that drive to save Rukia in everyone's eyes. Yoruichi had a proud look in her eyes as she looked at us.

"Let's get started then."

We spent the next several hours going over how to dodge and countering attacks.

"The key to dodging is to know what direction your opponents attack is coming from. If you can't figure that out, then you won't be able to dodge it. Get it ?" Yoruichi explained for the millionth time. We really weren't getting it and that was a problem.

When Yoruichi let us go for the night, Chiki and I walked down along the river. Chiki plopped down on the grassy banks.

"Kabei, what do think the Soul Society is going to be like?"

"I don't know. I suppose we'll see when we get there."

"I keep imagining big pearly gates on a cloud, but that's kinda cliché isn't it?"

"Yeah, that's pretty cliché," I said as I sat down beside her. She flopped onto her back.

"The stars are so pretty, but you can't see them very well in town. I hope you can see them clearly in the Soul Society." That's my Chiki never thinking about what could go wrong or how dangerous something is going to be. Just thinking about the simple things.

"Well if you can't see them in the Soul Society, then the first thing we'll do when we get back with Rukia is go out to the countryside and watch the stars. Everyone will go. You, me, Ichigo, Orihime, Uryuu, Chad, Rukia. Even Kisuke and Yoruichi."

"That would be fun. All of us together without a care in the world. I wish things could always be that way," she said. She had a small smile on her face.

"Yeah. That would be fun."

**Hoshiko Hikari**

"Can you take this paperwork over to the 11th Division?"

"Do I have to?" I whined. I hated going to that division. They scared me.

"Yes Hoshiko. And I don't care about your excuses either. You're taking that paperwork over there and that's final," To-chan said. We had to be the most completely opposite captain-lieutenant pair in the Seireitei. I am a very happy and fun midget. To-chan's a stick in the mud, angry midget.

"Fine." I grabbed the stack of papers off his desk and stormed out the door. At least it was a nice day out.

"Would you look at this, Yumichika. It's Lieutenant Hikari. How about a fight you little squirt?"

"Shut up Baldy!" I yelled back at him. I hated this division.

"DON'T MAKE FUN OF MY BALD HEAD! YOU BRAT, I'LL KILL YOU!" Ikkaku, 'Baldy', yelled at me. I heard a giggle come from the roof of one of the buildings. Lieutenant Yachiru Kusajishi jumped down from the roof and onto Ikkaku.

"Don't yell at Glowy-chan! It's not nice, right Ken-chan?" uh-oh. The captain is really why I don't like coming over here. It's not that he isn't a nice guy. He just scares me. He always wants to fight me whenever I come over here.

"Hehehe. That's right Yachiru. What the hell are you doing with that stack of papers?"

"Captain Hitsugaya told me to bring these over here," I said hiding behind the stack.

"Yumichika, go put those in the closet we dump all of the paperwork in," he said taking the stack from me. He looked back at me, "What do you say we have a little match, Lieutenant?" he bent _**WAY **_over so he was eye level with me.

"I….uh…would love to, but I-I-if I don't get back soon. Captain Hi-Hitsugaya would be really upset with me," I barely got the words out of my mouth.

"I'm sure the little runt wouldn't care," Captain Zaraki had a huge grin on his face. He put one of his huge hands on my head.

"Now now Captain Zaraki. Don't scare the little thing." his hand came off of my head. I turned around to see Captain Gin Ichimaru's fox-like face grinning at me. He motioned for me to come over to him. I hurried over there.

"Whatever," Zaraki seemed bummed out that we didn't fight. I was rather relieved.

"Thanks," I muttered as we walked away from the 11th Division. Gin just smiled at me.

"No problem, but I do want a favor out of you."

I quirked an eyebrow at him. What could he possibly want from me?

"You see, Izuru dropped a rather valuable object down a hole, and I don't know anyone small enough to get in the hole to get it."

"So you want me to crawl down a hole?" I asked. He nodded his head. "I suppose. Just let me go tell Captain Hitsugaya where I'm going."

"I'll wait here." I left him out in front of the 10th Division barracks and ran to the office.

"Hey To-chan, I need to do something for Captain Ichimaru." he didn't look very happy about that.

"And what exactly is that?"

"Izuru dropped something down a hole, and I'm the only one that can fit down it."

"Fine," he got up and walked over to me, "just be careful dealing with him and the rest of that division."

"Why?"

"I just have a weird vibe from them is all."

I ran outside to meet back up with Gin. I glanced back into the office window and I saw To-chan glaring out at Gin.

"Where exactly is this hole?"

"Its on the west side of Soukyoku Hill," he replied with that grin on his face.

We continued walking, when my Zanpakuto started bothering me.

"_I think you should take your captain's words to heart more Master."_

'_Shut up Hoshiryuu. Gin Ichimaru is a captain, and I can perfectly take care of myself.'_

'_Of course you can. That's why it's always the typical damsel in distress being saved by the knight in shining armor with you two."_

'_Let's not forget that I graduated from the academy at the top of the class and knowing Bankai.'_

'_With my help of course."_

'_Shut up!'_

I must not have been paying attention because after thinking that I ran into Gin, who had stopped.

"We're here."

I looked at the hole. It was really small. I don't even think I could get in it. I tried anyways. I crawled into the hole to the point that only my toes were sticking out. It was really dark, so I let my spiritual pressure leak out to light it up a bit. I saw something shine a few inches from my face.

"Is it supposed to glitter?" I asked from the hole.

"Yes it's a gem didn't I mention that? I suppose not."

I grabbed it in my teeth and wiggled my way back out. I held the gem in my hand when I got out. It sparkled in the sunlight and was a diamond cut in the shape of a star.

"It's really something. How could Izuru drop this?" I asked staring at it completely mesmerized by the array of colors reflecting off of it.

"Who knows?"

As soon as he said that, a weird energy emitted from the diamond. It jerked itself out of my hand and floated there right in front of me before it fused into me. It laid perfectly along my collar bone like where the pendant of a necklace would lay. The glow of it slowly diminished.

"Hmm. That's odd."

"That's odd? It just melded into my soul! And you say that's odd!"

"I didn't know it would do that. Let's not tell anyone about this, I don't need your captain trying to kill me. I'll try and find out what just happened here." That's all he said before he turned and left me sitting there clutching my chest where that jewel now was.

"_I told you so Master."_

'_shut up!'

* * *

_**I hope everyone liked it! Please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**New chapter! The three girls finally meet! I would also like to thank everyone who has been reviewing! i really appreciate it a lot!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach! I only own the three girls and any characters you don't recognize!  
****

* * *

Chiki Nakayama**

"Kisuke, what's a Dangai?" I asked. We were getting ready to leave for the Soul Society.

"The Dangai Precipice World is how the soul reapers move from the Soul Society to the World of the Living. However, you guys are going to have some problems using it."

"What do you mean by problems?" Kabei asked. I guess that got her interest because until Kisuke said that, she was dozing off. I don't blame her though it was like six in the morning and she doesn't get up on a Saturday until two usually.

"Only soul reapers can cross the Dangai safely. The eight of you will have to move quickly through to avoid any serious issues. I just hope today isn't the day the janitors go through," he said. That last part he said, he looked concerned about.

"The janitors are large masses of spiritual pressure that move through the Dangai and clean out anything that doesn't belong there. If you get caught by one, you die. So don't touch it if we do get chased by one," Yoruichi answered my next question before I even asked it.

"Just give me a few more minutes, and you'll be off," Kisuke said.

I looked around at everybody. Kabei was sitting on a rock by Ichigo. Uryuu was just kinda hanging out by himself. Orihime was excitedly chattering about something to Chad, who just kept nodding in response.

'Poor Rukia. I hope we can save her in time,' I thought, 'What am I saying? Of course, we'll save her! I can't keep getting so down on myself.'

I let out a loud sigh, and looked up. It must have been really loud because everyone was staring at me. I shrugged my shoulders and giggled as one of those huge sweat drops appeared on my head.

"Ready to go everyone?" I looked over at Kisuke, who had a huge purple hole opened up before him. We all walked over to him. He stopped us and looked at each one of us.

"Take a look around at everyone here. This is your team. Play off of each others weaknesses and strengths. Now go save Rukia and good luck."

Ichigo and Kabei took off into the Dangai first, then everyone else followed. I was just about to step through, when Kisuke stopped me. I looked up at him and he just smiled at me.

"Be careful ma chère," he said as he hugged me. Then he pushed me through the Dangai. I heard him laughing as it shut behind me.

The Dangai was creepy. The walls were purple, and it moved. Not to mention it was dark. It was like I was dropped into one of Kabei's horror novels.

"BOO!"

"! KABEI! THAT'S MEAN!"

"No it's not. Its funny."

"Knock it off you two," Yoruichi said from somewhere up ahead

"Do you guys hear something?" Uryuu asked. That's when I heard a strange sound, almost like something eating.

"RUN!" Yoruichi yelled. This purple blob was barreling at us. It had a light in the middle of it almost like an eye.

"What is that thing!" Kabei screamed.

"It's a janitor! Now just shut up and run!" We all ran as fast as we could. I looked back and saw Uryuu's cape get caught by it.

"URYUU!" Chad jumped back and tore it to get Uryuu out of danger.

"THERE'S THE END!" I heard Kabei scream. The janitor was catching up to us. Orihime stopped in front of it.

"Santen Kesshun! I reject!" A shield appeared and stopped the janitor for a second allowing us to escape. We all tumbled out of the Dangai into a pile of limbs.

"At least I brought a spare." I heard Uryuu say. We all looked up at him. He had a new cape on.

"Did you really bring a spare? You idiot," Ichigo muttered.

We got up and took a look around. There was no cloud or pearly gates. Darn.

"Hey Chiki. Looks like it's not your cliché after all," Kabei said. She looked rather amused. Instead, it looked more like a late Edo period Japan. The buildings, clothes, just everything.

"Let's go! That's the Seireitei over there isn't it!" Ichigo yelled. He started in that direction. Kabei grabbed him by the back of his shirt and pulled him over.

"You idiot. Do you really think we're just going to waltz in the front door?" she said as she glared at him. He glared back at her.

"She's right you know, but I know someone who can help us break in," Yoruichi said, "like Kabei said, we can't walk right in. We can't even climb over the walls."

"Why not?" I asked.

"The walls are made of sekkiseki. It repels spiritual pressure. The stone also creates a spherical barrier around the whole Seireitei."

Yoruichi led the way. We wondered through the streets of the Soul Society. Everyone kept giving us strange looks as we walked past. I suppose the way we were all dressed freaked them out. Aside from Ichigo, none of us blended in very well.

"I knew I would be able to find it. Here we are," I heard Yoruichi say. I turned around and saw a house with two arms holding up a banner and a large tower looking thing behind it. I looked over at everyone. They all looked as perturbed as I was.

**Kabei Misuteri**

"what the hell is that?" me and Ichigo asked in unison.

"This is Kukaku Shiba's house. She will be able to help us infiltrate the Seireitei."

I looked at the house. I was definitely not in Karakura Town anymore. As I was looking at the house, I heard this stampeding noise behind me. I turned around and was pummeled into the ground.

"Hold on Bonnie!" I looked up as I pried my face out of the ground. I was seething with anger. I saw this creeper guy sitting a boar. I instantly knew that's who had just run me over.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU AND YOUR STUPID PIG! I'LL MAKE BACON OUT OF IT!" I screamed. Chiki and Ichigo were trying to hold me back.

"Kabei, calm down we haven't even gotten into the Seireitei yet. You don't need to be starting fights," Ichigo was trying to calm me down.

"Hmph," I turned my nose and walked away.

"Who are you?" I heard Uryuu. I still wasn't really listening.

"My name is Ganju Shiba, self-proclaimed number one soul reaper hater of the West Rukon District," he introduced himself proudly. All I wanted to do was stick a metal rod up his-

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU HATE SOUL REAPERS?" Ichigo screamed.

"I MEAN EXACTLY WHAT I SAID. I **HATE **SOUL REAPERS!" Ganju screamed back. I could just tell Ichigo was getting pissed. I walked over to him, and put my hand on his shoulder.

"Ichigo, we aren't even in the Seireitei yet. You shouldn't be starting fights," I said in my smart ass tone. He gave me a look that told me I better shut up.

BANG!

We all turned our heads. Someone came out of the house and had slammed the door. A woman with huge, and I mean HUGE, boobs came stomping over.

"GANJU! WHAT IS WITH ALL OF THE NOISE?" she yelled at him as she hit him over the head. I think I might like this chick.

"Kukaku," Yoruichi said.

"Yoruichi! Are these kids with you?"

"Unfortunately, but that's besides the point. We need your help."

"So you're planning on infiltrating the Seireitei, huh? That's a pretty bold move, but I think I have a way to help you. That can wait until morning though," Kukaku said. She ushered us off to our rooms.

I waited until Chiki and Orihime fell asleep. Then I crawled out the window. I sat down on a hill away from the odd looking house. I laid back and looked up at the stars. Too bad Chiki wasn't awake, the stars were beautiful. There weren't any city lights to dim them, and they shined more brilliantly than anything I've ever seen.

I heard footsteps coming up from behind me. I sat up and turned around to find Ichigo standing there. He plopped down next to me.

"Nice weather we're having," he said smiling that goofy grin of his.

"It's beautiful," I replied. My eyes drifted from the sky over to the east, where the giant stone walls that surrounded the Seireitei were in view from the hill we were on, "What do you think is behind those walls?"

"I don't know, but whatever they throw at us we'll overcome it. I know we will." I looked up at him as he said this. He had that fire in his eyes again.

"Just be careful when we get there," I whispered, "I can't stand the idea of you hurt…or gone." I added that last part quietly. No sooner had the words come out of my mouth, that Ichigo wrapped his arm around me and pulled me to him.

"Kabei, don't worry yourself like this. You'll get premature wrinkles."

My eyes narrowed. That idiot! We were totally having a moment, and he tells me not to worry because I'll get wrinkles.

"I can't help it. Isn't it natural to worry in the face of extreme danger?"

"I suppose, but you really don't need to."

"And why is that?"

"Because, it's me and you," he said, "and we're not alone either. We have our friends here with us to help watch our backs."

I looked up at him, and I couldn't help but smile as I saw him smiling at me. I laid my head down on his shoulder.

"I guess you're right about that," I said, "Can I ask you something?"

"Yeah. Of course."

"Were you conscious when those soul reapers were taking Rukia, and the black haired one was getting ready to finish us off?" he nodded his head "that blonde one that jumped in and saved us and then just left us there, why do you think she did that?"

"Who knows? But, hey, she's a soul reaper. One of us will probably run into her, so ask her when that happens." he looked down at me and pulled a strand of hair out of my face.

"You have really boney shoulders," I said. He made a 'tch' sound. We sat there like that for hours as the night wore on, until eventually my breathing evened out, and I fell asleep.

**Hoshiko Hikari**

"_Daddy, why is Mommy so against me training to be a soul reaper?" I asked. _

"_Because the life of a female noble is not to be one of fighting. However, since you and your brother are twins, you will have to fight to see who is most worthy," my father explained. His kind eyes looking down on me as he answered my question._

_We walked down a path away from the house. It was spring, and the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. The sweet scent filled the air around us as we walked. My father sat down on a bench underneath one of the trees and motioned for me to come sit by him, as I sat down, he began to cough._

"_Daddy, are you sick?"_

"_It's nothing to worry about dear," he replied, still coughing. The wind picked up a little. Picking up the petals and swirling them around the garden. Many of them landing in the stream, then being swept away. _

_I looked up at my father. He didn't look well. He noticed my expression and put a hand on my head. He smiled at me._

"_Don't mind what your mother says. Now run along. I'll be back to the house in awhile." I got up and ran back up the hill. I stopped for a moment and turned around to watch my father walk towards the bridge. His captain's haori with the number ten on it billowing in the wind behind him._

_I sat in the frame of an opened picture window. My brother, Hikaru, sitting at a desk behind me. I was staring out at the Seireitei. I could pick out all of the divisions from this window, since the Hikari estate was on a hill in the Eastern part of the Seireitei._

"_I'm going to be there someday. I don't care what mom thinks. I'll beat you and become a soul reaper," I said to my brother as I turned around to look at him. My own face stared back at me._

"_We'll see about that."_

_I walked out to the garden. Father had called Hikaru and me out there. I saw him standing on the bridge; his face stoic. It had been like that quite often since mom died. I noticed Hikaru was already there._

"_Hoshiko, hurry down here," I heard him yell. As I got closer, I noticed that there were two soul reapers there. When I got there, my father must have noticed my confused look. _

"_Today we find out who will be a soul reaper," he said. His face had a look of remorse on it._

_Hikaru and I got in position, when one of the soul reapers explained how this would work._

"_the two of you shall fight using swords only. You shall fight to the death." My eyes widened. I looked at my brother, who had the same expression._

"_You can't be serious?" I screamed at my dad. He just looked away with sad eyes. I couldn't do this. I wanted to be a soul reaper, but did I really want it badly enough to kill my own brother? I got my answer after the soul reaper backed away and said begin. I closed my eyes and let my instincts take over._

"_**HIKARU!**__"_

_I was sitting in a hospital room. The beeping of the heart monitor was driving me insane. I looked over at my father laying there in the bed. I've never seen him look so weak before. He woke up and smiled at me._

"_Hoshiko, come over here dear," he said. It was whisper quiet. I scooted my chair closer to him. He took my hand. _

"_I saw that you are at the top of your class at the academy."_

"_Yeah. They're going to let me graduate this year, even though I'm only a first year student."_

"_I need to tell you something…I'm so proud of you. You'll make a great soul reaper. I know you will bring the Hikari family great honor as well. You truly are pure of heart. Never let anyone tell you otherwise."_

"_You're talking like you're dying. Don't talk like that," I said. My voice was getting shaky, and my eyes were filling with tears._

"_My only regret is not being able to see you grow up more, Hoshiko, but I'm sure you'll be a fine young woman. And soul reaper for that matter." he closed his eyes._

"_D-da-daddy? Don't. don't go. Don't leave me here! You can't leave me alone!" I cried between sobs._

_At the funeral, I looked around at the captains. One in particular. The one that had taken my father's captain seat. The new tenth division captain. The short one with white hair and turquoise eyes. I hated him instantly, even though it wasn't his fault he was gone._

"Hoshiko…Hoshiko!"

"**DON'T LEAVE ME!"** I woke up screaming and tears streaming down my face, with a very scared To-chan next to me.

"I was walking to the office, and I heard you screaming. Your door was unlocked so I let myself in," he said sitting down on my bed, "Just a bad dream?"

"Yeah. I'm fine," I said giving him a very fake smile.

An hour later, I was on my way to the only home I knew as a child. The Hikari estate. I wasn't going to make Gin do all of the research on this gem thing. That gem had weird light properties to it, so I bet there is some document in the archives about it.

No one lived in the estate now except for the help, but I had a purpose for going there. I hadn't been there for at least thirty-five years. I hope everyone recognizes me.

"Welcome home, Hoshiko-sama." yeah. They remembered me.

**Chiki Nakayama**

"You ignorant dumbass! You gotta stay focused!" Kukaku screamed at Ichigo. We all sighed.

We were working on controlling our spiritual pressure. Everyone had it down perfect except for Ichigo. Poor Ichigo had yet again managed to blow himself up.

I decided to walk outside. The morning air was cool and fresh. I took a deep breath as I glanced over at the huge tower protruding from the middle of the Seireitei where we would be in a few hours.

It was really early. There were still a few stars in the sky. I knew that Kabei was still in bed. She never got up before noon unless she had to. I giggled to myself at the thought of her. I heard another explosion come from inside the house.

"Oh Ichigo," I muttered. He was supposed to be Mr. Soul Reaper, but he was the one who couldn't control his reiatsu.

My mind wondered over to Kisuke and that hug he gave me before he pushed me into the Dangai. Maybe I'm reading into it too much, but I think he meant more than to be careful.

I missed him. After seeing him every day for almost two weeks, it was shocking to not have him around so much. I let out a long sigh. I turned around to go back inside, when I bumped into Chad.

"I'm sorry! I wasn't watching where I was going. Silly me!" I apologized.

"No need to apologize. They told me to come and get you. We are leaving in a little bit. Yoruichi wanted to talk to us," he said. He turned around and went back in.

I took one last look towards the Seireitei and went back inside.

Everyone was standing there waiting when I got back in. Kukaku showed us out to the big tower behind her house. I was extremely confused about why were out here.

"What are we out here for?" Uryuu asked.

"This tower behind me is used for launching fireworks. This is what I'm sending you to the Seireitei in," Kukaku explained, "that's why I had you work on controlling your reiatsu better because this particular firework will create a barrier around all of you when you pour your reiatsu into it. However, if one you wavers even slightly it will blow up."

She looked directly at Ichigo when she said this. Actually, we were all staring at him. His eyebrow started to twitch.

"WHY DO YOU KEEP STARING AT ME?" he yelled. Kabei walked up to him and put her arm around his neck.

"Because Ichigo, we don't want to be blown up," she retorted. Ichigo was getting ticked. Kukaku's next bit made it worse.

"Ganju, you're going with them."

"WHAT?" Ganju and Ichigo both yelled. Kabei looked sick to her stomach.

"You're going with them because I don't want them screwing anything up. Don't talk back to me about it either or I'll beat you," she said. She had a really scary look on her face. Ganju and Ichigo didn't argue after that.

"Now while Kukaku gets everything ready. I have a few rules," Yoruichi said, "First, we stay together. There are strengths in numbers. Second, if we should get separated, try not to run head long into a fight. I'm trying to bring you all back alive. Third, do NOT under any circumstances challenge a captain. If you run into one, just run. We'd all rather see you alive, than dead. And last but not least, watch out for Lieutenant Kusajishi and Lieutenant Hikari. This goes along with what I said about the captains. Wherever those two are, their captains are close behind," Yoruichi said. She was mostly looking at Ichigo and Kabei when she said this.

I don't really blame her. Both of them are rather thick-headed and rebellious.

"Is everyone ready to go?" Kukaku yelled from the firework launcher. Everyone looked ready. I gave her a thumbs up.

We all crowded into the little room. Kukaku threw the firework to Yoruichi. She poured some of her reiatsu into it, and it floated up. We all put some reiatsu into the firework and created a shield. I heard Kukaku counting down. There was a large explosion and the next thing I knew we were flying through the sky.

"I DON'T LIKE HEIGHTS!" I screamed.

"Chiki! You have to stay focused!" Yoruichi scolded me.

"Now it's time for my special technique!" Ganju said.

"What kind of 'technique' could someone as ugly as you possibly have?" Kabei asked.

"Well if you don't want to land safely, than keep on insulting me, EGGPLANT!"

"I'LL KILL YOU! YOU FAT UGLY PIG MAN!"

"Do you really want to blow us up Kabei?" Yoruichi was getting annoyed.

"ICHIGO, you're using to much spiritual energy!" Orihime exclaimed.

"I already cut it by half!"

"Well cut it in half again, idiot," Uryuu commanded. After he said that we hit the barrier around the Seireitei.

"Everyone pour all of you reiatsu into the firework or we won't make it through!" Ganju yelled. The flying orb pushed through the barrier, and we were in. however, the firework had yet to explode. Crap.

**Kabei Misuteri**

"GRAB AHOLD OF WHOEVER IS CLOSEST TO YOU AND DON'T LET GO! WE'RE GOING TO BE SEPARATED BY THE EXPLOSION!" Yoruichi yelled.

I grabbed Chiki's hair. It was the closest thing to me. She started trying to pull away, but I just yanked harder. The firework exploded, and we were all plummeting toward the ground.

"AHHHHHHHHH! KABEI! WE'RE GOING TO DIE!"

"No, we aren't, so just shut up!"

I was still death gripping Chiki's hair as we fell. She was screaming like a little girl. The sun was just barely coming up, so I could kinda see where we were going to land. We were directly above a pond. At least the landing would be soft.

We landed with a loud splash. Great. Now we just attracted someone's attention. Could this get any worse. We already broke one of Yoruichi's rules. We were all alone and lost for that matter.

"Ew. I'm all wet!" Chiki cried.

"Oh shut up. At least your hair isn't going to become a matted mess in a few minutes."

"WHAT DID I DO NOW? WHY ARE YOU GUYS CHASING ME?" a voice yelled. It seemed really close. I peeked around the corner of a building and saw this kid being chased by a bunch of burly looking guys. I grabbed the kid's arm as he ran by and pulled him away. The guys chasing him must have been pretty stupid because they just kept on going.

"Thank you so much! I thought I was done for," he said as he bowed. When he looked up and saw me and Chiki standing there, he freaked out and backed away.

"You look petrified. I know we just crawled out of a pond after being blown up by a firework, but we can't look that bad," I said. He was shaking he was so scared. Poor kid. We must have looked really bad.

"Y-y-y-you're those ryoka that everyone is talking about!" he looked like he was going to faint.

"I don't know what you're talking about, but you're coming with us," I said. I grabbed his arm and pulled him down the road..

"Where are you taking me?" he asked. I could almost swear he was going to wet himself.

"To our leader," Chiki said with her green glove in front of her face. The kid fell over. Totally knocked out. I hit Chiki upside the head.

"You idiot! He was already scared enough. We can't just leave the poor kid here either. What if those stupid men come back."

"Falling for another man? What am I going to tell Ichigo?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I know what happened don't deny it."

"How do you know about last night?" I was thoroughly frustrated.

"I don't, but thanks for telling me. Now I want details," she said with a sly grin on her face.

"Not now. Our lives are still on the line here." I had a stupid blush on my face. It was so obvious against my terribly white skin.

"I hear footsteps ," Chiki said. We darted behind a building. A group of soul reapers came running up. One of them had wavy orange hair and a pink scarf. Not to mention huge boobs.

"Third seat Matsumoto, we found the seventh seat of squad four. One of those ryoka must have knocked him out," one of them said.

"They have to be close by. Go notify the captain and lieutenant!"

"Yes m'am!" they left including the large chested one. Me and Chiki came out from behind the building.

'We have to get out of here. If the captain and lieutenant come back, we're dead," Chiki said. We took off running down the street, checking around every corner.

I felt a sudden rise in spiritual pressure in the distance. Ichigo was fighting someone already. Figures. I wouldn't be surprised if it was that Ganju guy. I wouldn't necessarily be sad about it either.

"Where do you think they are keeping Rukia?" I asked Chiki. I had a feeling that we were running in the wrong direction.

"I don't know. Why don't we ask for directions?" I slapped her upside the head again. That probably wasn't helping her mental state any, but what was I supposed to do.

"Do you really think that we could just walk up to someone and ask for directions to a prison cell, so we could break out an alleged criminal?" we were still running as I slapped her again.

"I don't know. Why don't you try it," a voice said behind us.

**Hoshiko Hikari**

I was on my way back to the office after I had spent all day going through the archives at the Hikari estate trying to find something out about that weird gem. I found nothing.

I was jumping across the rooftops when I got a message from a hell butterfly. Some of those ryoka were running around by the tenth division and attacked poor Hanataro. That's just low, he can barely defend himself.

I stopped suddenly when I saw a purple headed girl smack her friend upside the head. That's mean. I can't help but think that I've seen her before, but where?

"Do you really think that we could just walk up to someone and ask for directions to a prison cell, so we could break out an alleged criminal?" the purple one yelled as she smacked the other one again.

"I don't know. Why don't you try it?" I said as I jumped down behind them. Their faces were priceless. Especially the purple one.

"You're that little blonde chick!" the purple one yelled.

"So I do know you from somewhere. Well that's a relief! I thought I was going crazy!" I giggled.

"KABEI! LOOK HOW CUTE AND SMALL SHE IS! SHE'S LIKE A LITTLE DOLL!" the other one screamed. She grabbed me and started spinning me around. Did she really just call me _short_?

"DON'T CALL ME SMALL!" I screamed as I smacked her across the face.

"Why do people keep hitting me!" she cried, tears streaming down her face. That must have made the purple one angry. This should be fun.

"Chiki, just stay back. I'll handle this little brat," she said as her eyes narrowed. That was a stupid move. Now I knew what her biggest weakness is, and that was her little friend over there crying.

"You're going to fight me? Do you really want to do that?" I taunted, knowing it was making her even more mad. A smile spread across my face. The Seireitei was starting to be less boring now.

"You hurt my best friend and made her cry. That is unforgivable, and now you're going to pay," she said with deadly intensity. The bracelets on her hand started to glow purple and black.

"How rude! You plan on attacking me, and we haven't even introduced ourselves yet. What kind of manners do they teach you in the World of the Living?" I kept taunting her. I was trying to get her to attack me. I was curious about those bracelets of hers.

"Kabei Misuteri."

"Lieutenant Hoshiko Hikari of Squad Ten, at your service," I said, bowing. I giggled some more. It was ticking her off that I wasn't taking her seriously.

"Kabei that's one of the lieutenants that Yoruichi told us to stay away from!" the other one screamed.

"I don't care Chiki." So Chiki was the other one's name, "no one slaps you except for me."

"Yoruichi trained you guys? This is going to be more entertaining than I thought," I said. A purple disk shot out of Kabei's hand. It narrowly missed my face, but still clipped my shoulder, "Well that was a surprise."

I unsheathed my Zanpakuto. I was going to have to be a little more serious. I don't care what kind of bizarre powers she had, but there was no way a human was going to out maneuver me when it comes to speed and agility.

I flash stepped behind her and swung Hoshiryuu towards her neck. Her other arm came up, and a black shield appeared. It looked like mist, but it was solid enough to stop my sword.

I jumped back and dodged another purple disk. If I was going to hit her, I was going to have to have an attack that's faster than me swinging my Zanpakuto around.

I jumped up on top of a nearby building, so I could release my Zanpakuto. I could feel their eyes on me. They obviously didn't know what I was doing. This will surprise them.

"Spread your light over the darkened earth, Hoshiryuu!" I yelled pointing Hoshiryuu toward the sky.

The shiny metal of my sword became pure light. The morning sky changed to night with all of the stars shining brightly. I pulled the stars from Orion's belt out of the sky, and they encircled me.

"What did you just do soul reaper?" Kabei asked. She looked rather confused. Chiki sat there wiping her eyes as she stared wide-eyed at me.

"This is the true form of my Zanpakuto, Hoshiryuu. She allows me to manipulate the night sky, using the stars to attack with and such. I wasn't going to grace you with my shikai's appearance, but I needed a little extra speed. Besides, you have dark element based attacks, and the light always conquers the darkness, right?"

I swung Hoshiryuu through the air causing the stars around me to fly towards Kabei. The first two hit her. One slicing her left leg; the other her right arm. The rest were blocked by her shield, but just barely.

She threw another purple disk at me, but not without some pain. The arm I had just hit was the one she attacks with. I sliced the disk in half with my sword. They both looked really astonished.

"You really don't expect to hit me with that twice do you? Especially with my shikai released. Darkness is just the absence of light, so if your little disks or shield come into contact with my sword; they'll just disappear."

Kabei looked pissed, and Chiki looked frightened beyond what I thought was even possible. I had to do something to get one of them to attack me with a stronger attack than Kabei's. I didn't want to kill them, but with my shikai released it wouldn't be long before someone else would show up. If that happened, they wouldn't let them go.

I couldn't do that either. If I let them go, I would be marked as a traitor and probably executed along with Rukia. I had to find some way to let them go. Before I showed up, they said something about breaking out an alleged criminal. It had to be Rukia. They had to save Rukia.

That was when it hit me. I knew the greatest weakness of both of them. Now I knew what I needed to do, to get them to attack me with all of their power and heart in it.

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**There's chapter 6! Hope you liked it! Please review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**I got a chance to update today! yay! But I'm home from school sick. Which isn't a Yay! Just a warning there is some fluff between Hoshiko and Toshiro. I didn't know what to with her in between major plot developments so yeah... I hope everyone enjoys!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach! I only own the three girls and any characters you may not recognize!  
****

* * *

Chiki Nakayama**

Hoshiko was standing on the roof staring down at us. It looked like she was strategizing. I looked over at Kabei, who was bleeding in several spots. Badly I might add. It was my fault too, which made it worse. She got hurt protecting me because I can't handle getting slapped around.

I looked back up toward the roof, but Hoshiko wasn't there anymore. I turned around, and she was there right behind with her sword coming right at me. I closed my eyes and waited for an impact, but it never came. I opened my eyes and was horrified.

Kabei was there with her shield sliced right through. There was a deep gash on her shoulder, and it was bleeding heavily. I stared at Kabei. Her eyes never left the little soul reaper. Hoshiko stood a ways back, her face had an expression that was aiming to kill.

I looked at Kabei again. She was struggling to get up and keep fighting. We all knew that her attacks were useless unless she got Hoshiko off guard. We also knew that that wasn't likely. I knew then that I was going to have to stand up and fight.

When we were little, it was always Kabei standing up for me. She was always the one who fought off bullies and came to find me when I had ran away scared. She was there for me when my parents died. Even though it seems out of character for her, I was always behind her in school. I was always watching her from behind, now its her turn.

I stood up and put myself between Kabei and Hoshiko. The little soul reaper looked amused by this in a way that makes me wonder if we just played into her hands. Her serious face became lighthearted, and she giggled.

Her laugh sounded like a child's. Well her voice did too, but her laugh even more so. I was beginning to wonder how old she really was. She had the voice of a child, she was so small and petite, and then her hair was in pigtails tied with blue ribbons. That just seems like an eight year old to me.

"Hmm. So it seems that the name caller is going to fight her own battle now. How interesting," she said with a hint of a giggle in her voice, "you know if you hadn't been so rude as to call me small, none of this would have happened. So its really all your fault."

"What do you mean by tha-" I was cut off as I was grabbed around the waist. I was lifted off the ground. It happened so fast that I had no idea what was going on.

In about five minutes, I was let down. I looked up and saw Chad. He sat Kabei down next to me. Her hair was ruffled up, but her wounds weren't bleeding as badly.

"You guys seemed like you were in a tough spot, so I helped you," Chad said.

"Thank you?" I said. I never really talked to Chad, so it was awkward for me to hear him talk. After he said that, he took off.

"That was weird," Kabei said as she struggled to get up. Her arm was almost totally broken from the impacts of Hoshiko's sword. She stumbled once she got to her feet.

"Just sit back down. You're hurt," I pleaded with her. She shot a glare at me.

"We can't keep sitting around. Someone will find us, and we now know what happens when someone finds us."

I put her arm around my neck to help support her. We were getting nowhere fast. As we walked along, I looked up at the sky. It had become bright again. The stars disappeared as the sun came back out.

"Looks like the brat put her sword away," Kabei said.

"Speaking of her, you acted like you knew her."

"She was one of the soul reapers that came to take Rukia. She was the one that stopped the black-haired one from killing us," she said softly. I knew she didn't like talking about that, so I tried to change the subject.

"So what's the new plan of action, maestro?" I asked. I must have lightened the mood because Kabei scoffed at me.

"I suggest we first find a place for me to fix myself. It wouldn't be a very bright idea to just keep standing out here in the open," she said as she hobbled toward an abandoned looking building.

I jogged up ahead of her to kick the door down. Inside there were a few old crates but nothing more. Kabei hobbled over and sat down with a loud sigh of relief. It was quiet for awhile until I said something.

"We were lucky weren't we?"

"Yeah…we were," she said quietly. Then out of nowhere she slammed her fist down on a crate next to her, shattering it into millions of pieces. Like a glass vase meeting the floor for the first time, "SHE WAS JUST TOYING WITH US! SHE NEVER HAD ANY INTENTION OF ACTUALLY KILLING US!"

"Kabei calm down! Someone will hear us, and besides how do you know that?" she got a dead serious look on her face.

"If she was being serious, we wouldn't be alive. We've had our powers for about two weeks. We haven't mastered them yet. If that fight had taken place a few years from now, it might be a different story."

I'm not sure what came over me, but I got up and smacked her as hard as I could across her face.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" she screamed as she held her cheek that now had my hand burned into it.

"If we're going to make it through this, you're going to have to quit the 'I'm not strong enough, so I can't do it' attitude!"

"bu-"

"And I don't want to hear any if's, and's, or but's about it! If you think you can't do it, then you won't! don't you have any faith in yourself? Any faith in me?" I glared at her. She glared back. We stayed like that for a few minutes, until her eyes softened.

"I suppose you're right…" she said softly her eyes averted away from mine like a little child that has just gotten into trouble.

"that's better now isn't it?" I said as I smiled at her. I held out my hand to help her up, "now let's go kick some soul reaper butt."

She smirked at me as I pulled her up, and we took off into the streets once more.

**Kabei Misuteri**

Me and Chiki were lost. There was no other way to put it. We still had no idea where Rukia was or which way we were supposed to be going. Neither of us knew where anybody else was either.

"Kabei, where are we?' Chiki whined. She was getting tired. I stopped and put on my thinking face.

"We've been running for a few hours, but everything looks the same," I said. Chiki let out a loud sigh and plopped down onto the street. She pursed her lips.

"I don't wanna move anymore! My legs hurt!"

"We can't stop! It can't be a minute past five! You big baby!"

"I'm not a baby!"

"Yes you are! Only a baby would be complaining when there are lives at stake!"

"Takes one to know one!" she yelled as she stuck her tongue out. I was going to smack her, but I resisted the urge because I heard footsteps coming. I grabbed Chiki by the arm and pulled her around the corner.

"I heard yelling from over here." I heard a voice say. It sounded like that pig man, but I wasn't sure.

'Why wou-would we wa-wa-want to find people that we-we-were yelling?"

"Cuz it might be some of our friends. It sounded like Kabei and Chiki." that voice I recognized.

"Ichigo!" I screamed and flung myself into his arms.

"I told you so," he said looking back at the people he had in tow. I lifted my head to see who was with him. The pig man and that kid from earlier were standing there. Chiki came bouncing out.

"Hi Ichigo!"

"Hey Chiki," he said. He stepped back from me and actually looked at us for the first time in almost twenty-four hours, "God Kabei. You looked like you got hit by a truck."

I mentally slapped him. First the premature wrinkles and now I got hit by a truck. Why do I like him? I guess I'll never really know.

"We ran into the cutest little soul reaper ever! She hit me and made Kabei really mad, so Kabei tried to beat her up and epically failed!" Chiki told him excitedly. The kid's eyes got really wide.

"You two fought Lieutenant Hikari?" he asked. His face was stunned.

"Yeah. She didn't even take us seriously," I muttered. The next time I see her, she's going down.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it. She toys around with everyone. On top of it, I can almost guarantee that she let you go on purpose," he said. For some reason, when he talked to me he didn't stutter.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better? That she let me go out of pity!"

"N-n-n-no! th-that's not what I meant! She doesn't want Rukia to be executed either. She must have known that that's what you were doing here," he started stuttering again. I must have scared him.

"Then that's what she meant!" Chiki exclaimed. She must have come to a realization about something I missed, "She told me that if I hadn't called her small, it all could have been avoided."

I actually hit myself when those words came out of her mouth. Did I seriously get beat up because Chiki had called the little brat small?

"She doesn't like height ref- AHHHHHHHHH! YOU'RE THE ALIEN!" he screamed when he saw her green arm and fainted.

The pig man bent over and picked him up. We started walking when we heard footsteps from behind. We turned around a corner and ducked into a man hole.

I was about to say something out of disgust of what we were standing next to, but Ichigo put his hand over my mouth. The voices above us got louder and then softer, as the soul reapers walked over the manhole.

It stunk in the sewers, but we were safe down here. We walked for awhile, not really sure about where we were going. Hanataro, I found out is what his name was, woke up after about an hour.

"I think we are close to the Repentance Tower," he said as he looked around the sewage pipes.

"How can you tell where we are? It looks the same down here everywhere you turn," I asked.

"One of my jobs is to clean up down here, so I know what tunnels go where," he replied.

"That's sick! Why do they make you clean up down here!" I yelled.

"I'm a member of the fourth division. The relief squad. All the other divisions find us fourth division members useless, so we get all of the bad jobs."

"That's horrible! You guys should be seen as the most important! What would the rest of them do without people that can heal?" the poor kid. I couldn't believe he had to work down here where everybody's crap goes. Literally.

"Try telling Captain Zaraki's squad that," he said quietly, "But if we want to find Rukia, then we should probably go up at the next ladder."

Ichigo, Ganju, me, Chiki, and then Hanataro climbed out of the sewer. I was ecstatic about the fresh air.

"It's this way!" Hanataro said. We took off into the streets toward the tower Rukia was in, when suddenly an immense spiritual pressure surrounded us.

"Where do you think you're going, you little rats?" the red haired soul reaper that came to take Rukia away was in front of us.

"We're here to save Rukia! Now get out of our way!" Ichigo yelled.

"I don't think so. If you want to get to Rukia, you're going to have to cut me down first," he said. Ichigo turned around to face us.

"I want you guys to get out of here. Kabei. Chiki. I want you to run and get away from here," he commanded, staring me in the eyes.

"But Ichi-" I started.

"No. get out of here and find some other way around here to get to the tower.'

I stared at him for what seemed like an eternity. Memorizing what he looked like, in case I never saw him again. Then I nodded my head, and turned to Chiki.

"Let's go!" I said, and we took off by ourselves again. When we were a ways away, Chiki spoke up.

"Where are we going?'

"We're going to find that little brat. Hanataro said she might help, and besides, I need to kick her little ass into oblivion."

**Hoshiko Hikari**

I was sitting in the office waiting for To-chan to get back from the captains' meeting. I was sitting in his chair turned toward the window watching one of my friends from the academy walk back towards her division with Yumichika in tow. He's probably complimenting her beauty as usual.

"This office is so boring!" I yelled and banged my head on the window. Just then, a hell butterfly landed on my shoulder.

"Lieutenant Hoshiko Hikari, you're needed in the meeting room this instant," boomed the voice of the Head Captain.

"Uh-oh," I muttered as I dragged myself out the door.

A few minutes later I was in the meeting hall with all of the captains glaring at me. I knelt down before Head Captain Yamamoto.

"Lieutenant Hikari, earlier today your reiatsu spiked around the tenth division barracks. Can you explain why you released your Zanpakuto without permission or being under martial law?" Soutaicho drilled me.

"I was on my way back to the barracks when I stumbled upon a couple of ryoka, Soutaicho."

"And what happened to them?" he asked as he raised an eyebrow. I could feel all of the captains stiffen after I had said the word 'ryoka'. Now they were even more tense as they waited for my answer.

"They got away. Another ryoka jumped in and saved them before I could finish them off."

"Did you give chase?"

"No, sir."

"That's treason! She let them get away!" Soi Fon yelled and stepped toward me. That made me mad.

"How do you know I let them get away?" I yelled back, standing up from the spot where I was kneeling.

"Any other soul reaper would have tracked them down! Why didn't you?" she glared at me, and I glared back. I pulled part of my shihakusho down to show her the gash on my shoulder from Kabei.

"You see, I didn't make it out unharmed. I didn't chase them because I figured I would be of more use alive than dead," I said. That shut her up.

"AHEM!" Yamamoto got our attention again, "Can you at least tell us about their powers?"

"The purple haired girl has dark aura disks that shoot out of her arms, and can create a very powerful shield. The girl with the green glove I'm not sure about. She never attacked me."

"You may go, Lieutenant."

I bowed and left. I walked back to the office to wait for To-chan. I sat back down on his swivel chair behind his desk. I was dozing off when I heard the door open and then slam shut.

"So how'd the meeting go?"

"We decided that since you didn't let them go without a fight, you won't be tried for treason, but only captain's are allowed to fight the ryoka now."

"Why?"

"You, Renji, Ikkaku, Yumichika, and several others were defeated."

"That's stupid. I wasn't even really defeated. I me-" I was cut off.

"Do you know how much stress you cause me!" he yelled. He was livid.

"No."

"It's a lot. Way too much to be exact."

"Maybe you shouldn't worry so much about me."

"NOT WORRY ABOUT YOU? HOW DO YOU EXPECT ME NOT TO WORRY ABOUT SOMEONE LIKE _YOU_?"

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SOMEONE LIKE _ME_?"

"YOU GO OFF ON MISSIONS TO THE WORLD OF THE LIVING AND NOT TELL ME, RUN OFF WITH GIN FOR TWO HOURS AND COME BACK WITH SOME WEIRD REIATSU ABOUT YOU, AND THEN GET IN A FIGHT WITH TWO RYOKA! HOW COULD I NOT WORRY!"

"I NEVER ASKED YOU TOO! I'M PERFECTLY CAPABLE OF TAKING CARE OF MYSELF!" I screamed back. That must have made him really mad. He pushed me into the wall and glared at me.

"You're right. You never asked me to worry about you, and I'm sure you could take care of yourself," he said. His voice was softer now.

"Great. We came to an understanding. Now let me go." he kept his grip on me.

"But your father asked me to watch over you. He knew you would end up in the Tenth Division when he was gone. I'm just respecting Captain Hikari's last wish, 'to keep his daughter safe'. that's why I worry," he said so quietly I could barely hear him. I felt the pressure of his hands lift off of my shoulders. I pushed past him to the door.

"So that's why you act like you care. It's nice to know that you were forced to," I said as I stormed out the door.

It was dark outside. I sat down on the roof and looked up at the stars. I could see Venus in the sky tonight. I laid down on my side and put my head on my arm.

I couldn't believe that stone's reiatsu was potent enough for him to notice. I also wonder if Gin's ever going to offer his thoughts on it.

"FML!" I yelled. Tonight has sucked for sure. Finally I just started crying. I couldn't help it anymore.

Suddenly, I felt myself being pulled up into someone's lap. I could tell from the faint watermelon smell that it was Toshiro.

"What do you want?" I asked with my face buried in his chest.

"I wasn't done when you ran out," he whispered quietly.

"What? Now you're going to tell me that you wanted a different lieutenant."

"No, I'm not. No one could ever be a better lieutenant than you. Not Abarai, Kira, or Hisagi."

"Well what then? I need to go back to wallowing in my own self pity," my voice choked up as I said that. Toshiro sighed and lifted my face up, so I had to look at him.

"That wasn't the only reason I worry about you. You're so much more than a lieutenant or a Hikari to me," he said. I felt his lips gently press against my cheek, and then he whispered into my ear, "That's why I worry about you."

**Chiki Nakayama**

Kabei and me had stayed hidden all night. Now that it was dawn and light out again, we hit the streets in search of Hoshiko.

"Do you really think that she'll help us?" I asked. Kabei furrowed her brow.

"I don't know, but we have to try. Do you know how good it would be to have another soul reaper on our side? One that can actually fight anyways…"

I knew she was thinking of Hanataro. She had a point there. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I felt Kabei grab my hair and pull me back.

"Ouch! What was that for?"

"Look at that."

In front of us was a huge sakura tree in full bloom. Behind it was a large building with a kanji ten on it.

"She said she was from the tenth division didn't she?" I asked. I looked at Kabei, who had a huge grin on her face.

"She sure did."

"Now what do we do?"

"Um…." Kabei was at a loss for words. We both knew we couldn't just walk in there. We'd get dead fast.

"Well, we could hide in the tree." I suggested.

"Great idea Chiki!" Kabei exclaimed and gave me a thumbs up. She must have been very hungry. She usually never gets this odd, but we haven't eaten any real food for a few days now.

We scrambled up the tree to wait for Hoshiko to come out. We heard a door open and close. Someone with white spiky hair came out followed by one of the soul reapers we had seen the other day and Hoshiko.

"But Captain! That's so much work!" the strawberry blonde complained.

"I don't care Rangiku. That's your punishment for the other night. Every last stack of paperwork in the office," the little captain said as he continued walking. We sat and watched Hoshiko wink at Rangiku. She took off, and before I could see what happened she was on the captain's back.

"TO-CHAN! THAT'S SO MEAN! ITS NOT FAIR TO MAKE HER DO THE PAPERWORK! THAT'S OUR JOB!" she wailed. He shook her off and looked down at her. She had a puppy face plastered across her face. He smirked.

"That's right. You can do it instead," he said. Then he looked at Rangiku, "And you can wash every single floor in the division."

He walked off leaving the two of them speechless. I couldn't help but snicker.

"Sorry Rangiku."

"That's okay! I won't do it anyways!" she chirped and then skipped off. Hoshiko was now sitting by herself.

"Now? Lets go now!" Kabei chattered. I really needed to get her something to eat.

"You two can come out of that tree now," Hoshiko said looking up at the tree.

'How did she know we were here?" Kabei asked as she climbed over me knocking me out of the tree. I landed on my butt with a loud thud.

"You two look like crap," she giggled.

"We need your help. We heard from a fairly reliable source that you are against Rukia's execution," I said. Kabei was twirling around behind me. Hoshiko looked surprised by my request.

"Come with me. We can't talk out here," she said as she walked back toward the building. I grabbed Kabei and followed her inside. She shuffled us into what I presumed was the office and locked the door behind her.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she muttered.

"if you want Rukia to be saved, then why wouldn't you be doing this?" I asked.

"How dense can you humans get? What I'm doing right now, I could be executed for treason for doing. Now how do like your tea?" she put a tea tray down on the table.

After we had our tea, and Kabei had something to eat, Hoshiko stared at us with a serious look on her face.

'So what is it exactly you want me to do?" she asked.

"We need to get to the Repentance Tower as quickly as possible," Kabei told her. Seems like she's back to normal.

"The Repentance Tower? Well, I'm not going to have time to take you there myself, but I think here's a map of the Seireitei in To-chan's desk," she got up to go look through his desk.

'What do you mean you have no time? Don't you live forever or something?" I asked.

"Not necessarily. I'm not going to die of old age. I don't have enough time because I have a lieutenants meeting in a half hour," she said looking at the clock.

"But we might not get there if you don't take us," I said trying to sweet talk her.

"And that's a chance I'm willing to take," she flashed a smile at us.

"But…" I started. Kabei jumped up and picked Hoshiko up by the front of her shirt.

"Look here you little brat! You're going to take us there or I'm going to kick your little ass! Got it?"

"I'm so scared. Whatever will I do?" she put a fake scared look on her face.

There had to be some way to make her take us at least so we can see it and get there without getting lost. I looked around the room. My eyes landed on the desk and a stack of papers with a bottle of ink next to them. I went over to the desk and picked up the ink bottle.

"Oh Hoshiko!" I chirped. She looked over at me, and her eyes got really big.

"Don't. you. Dare." she glared at me. I was holding the open ink bottle over the stack of papers.

"Take us to the tower," I said with a devilish smirk.

"I already told you I can't!"

"Take us to the tower, or the papers get it," I was tipping the ink closer and closer to the papers.

"FINE! I'll take you, just don't spill that ink!"

"I knew you'd understand," I said. Kabei looked at me like I was the spawn of Satan. I just smiled.

**Kabei Misuteri**

Hoshiko was taking us to the Repentance Tower. I'm not quite sure what was so special about those papers that Chiki had to threaten to make her take us, but it worked.

"I can't believe I'm doing this…" Hoshiko kept muttering that to herself as she kept an eye out for any other soul reapers.

"What's your problem?" I asked.

"My problem is that this is the second time you two have caused me some serious trouble. When I fought you two, the captains thought I let you go on purpose. Well, I did, but I was almost executed for treason! And now here I am again! Helping the 'enemy'," she put air quotes around enemy, "I'm clearly insane."

She hopped up onto a building to look around. She gave us the go ahead signal as she jumped down. We continued on with that pattern for awhile until the tower loomed in the distance.

"I'm sorry, but this is as far as I can go. The security around the Repentance Tower will be tight, but I'm sure you can handle it," she said and gave us a wink. Before either of us could say anything, she was gone.

"Chiki tell me something, how did you know to use those papers as blackmail?" I was still in awe over her display of utter genius.

"Remember when we were in the tree, her captain told her to do all of the paperwork. I kinda just lucked out that it was the right stack," she said. I was still in a state of amazement when we reached the tower.

As we got closer, there were more and more soul reapers. None of them seemed as strong as a lieutenant or captain, although, my sense of spiritual pressure sucked worse than my personal record.

"We need to be sneaky if we are going to reach the tower, so lets wait for an opening and make a ru-" I was saying until I saw Chiki walk right out into the street. I ran out after her and pushed her behind a building.

"Ouch! That hurt, you big meanie!"

"Oh yeah! Well, the big dumbie is going to get the big meanie killed by walking out into the open like that!"

"Sorry," she mumbled.

"Yeah, you better be. Now lets move before we get caught."

We reached the tower without any problems. The problem was how we were going to get in.

"Maybe we should ask someone where the door is!" Chiki chirped. Looks like her brain shut itself off again. I resisted the urge to smack her to reduce the risk of killing any developing brain cells.

"Just stop and think for a minute will you!" I said. I looked up and seen a bridge that went from one building to the tower. That must be the door, "I think that's where we need to go."

I didn't wait for her to answer I just grabbed her and ran. I headed toward the building that had the bridge in it, Chiki trying to keep up.

We got to the bridge in one piece. Everything was fine until Chiki wouldn't move.

"Come on move!"

"No! I can't go out there, its too high up!"

Crap. I forgot about her fear of heights. "Then just stay here and keep watch. don't let anyone by unless they're not an enemy."

"Who isn't the enemy?"

"Just use your better judgment," I said as I walked out toward the tower. There were soul reapers guarding the place. I threw a couple of discs at them and knocked them out. I would've thought they would have had higher ranking soul reapers guarding the joint.

"Well, look what we have here! If it isn't Vegetable Girl!" I heard a voice from behind me.

"What do you want Pig Man?" I turned around to see Ganju and Hanataro.

"Same as you. Rescue this Rukia girl. Ichigo's orders."

"Where is Ichigo?" I asked. I could feel myself stiffen now that I noticed he wasn't there.

"He's fighting some big soul reaper, but don't worry about him. He's stronger than he looks," he gave me a thumbs up. I rolled my eyes at him and went to open the door.

The door slowly opened and stopped with a loud thud. We stepped inside. I looked up and saw Rukia sitting in the window.

"RUKIA!" she looked down with a disbelieving look, and then her eyes widened. She came down to make sure I was really there.

"Kabei, it really is you. And Hanataro. What are you guys doing here?"

"R-re-rescuing you," Hanataro stuttered. He seemed nervous being here. I wonder if he would be in as much trouble as Hoshiko. It was also then that I noticed Ganju wasn't there.

"You guys are such idiots! Who else is here?" she asked pointedly at me.

"Chad, Uryuu, Orihime, Chiki, and-"

"Ichigo," we said in unison. Just then I heard a scream. Chiki!

We ran outside to find Ganju face to face with that soul reaper with the black hair. One of the one's that took Rukia. I looked past him to see Chiki laying on the ground with a small trickle of blood coming from her mouth.

Hanataro was holding me back. I wanted to beat that guy to a bloody pulp. He beat Ganju out of the way and looked at us. I kept struggling to get out of Hanataro's grip.

When I finally did, I was so blinded by rage that I just went at him. The last thing I remembered was falling off the bridge and Ichigo's worried-anger filled eyes before I blacked out.

**Hoshiko Hikari**

I was moving as fast as I could towards the meeting room. I had this feeling that I should have stayed with those two, but I couldn't risk it. It seemed too quiet as I got to the meeting room. I obviously wasn't the only one late.

"Where have you been?" Omaeda, lieutenant of squad two, yelled in my face as soon as I walked in. he was a good two and a half feet taller than me.

"I woke up late," I lied.

"Why did you wake up late?" he kept interrogating me.

"I didn't sleep well," another lie, but I wasn't about to tell them about what really happened, "but is this really the time to be inter-"

"CAPTAIN AIZEN!" everyone heard the blood curdling scream.

"That sounded like Momo!" Isane said.

We all rushed out of the room to where we had heard the scream. I skidded to a stop, horrified by what I saw. The rest of the lieutenants screeching to a halt behind me.

Up above on a tower, Captain Aizen was hanging. Pierced through the chest by his own Zanpakuto. His blood splayed out in such a pattern that it looked like a blooming flower.

Momo was on her knees in hysterics. None of us could do anything out of shock. We just stood there gaping, like hungry fish in a koi pond.

"Oh dear. This certainly isn't good." Captain Ichimaru came out of nowhere. That sly fox-like grin on his face.

"IT WAS YOU! YOU DID THIS!" Momo screamed. She pulled out her Zanpakuto.

"Now now. Let's not get hasty," Ichimaru said. He stood there, unmoving.

"MOMO STOP!" I screamed, but it was too late.

"Snap, Tobiume!" A burst of energy came out of her Zanpakuto. Ichimaru didn't even move as it went at him. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Izuru move. He blocked Momo's attack. He rushed at her.

Before their swords clashed, they were stopped by someone. I looked up and saw To-chan in between them.

"Shiro-chan!"

"Captain Hitsugaya!"

"You two should be ashamed of yourselves! Attacking each other like this! When the real matter at hand is to get Captain Aizen's body down. Not to mention you broke the law. Someone get over here and take them to the prison!" He ordered.

A few lieutenants responded and took Momo and Izuru away. I looked at To-chan. I thought sending them to prison was a little harsh, but I suppose it can't be helped. As I stood there still stunned, my eyes wondered over to Gin, who, to my surprise, was looking right at me. That smile plastered to his face like always.

We stared at each other for what seemed like an hour until I felt a hand on my shoulder.

"Let's go. I have something I need you to help me with," To-chan said. I followed right behind, wanting to get out of Gin's sight. It was quiet between the two of us. We hadn't talked at all since last night, except for me attacking him this morning, but that wasn't exactly talking per se.

"Where are we going?" I asked quietly. I had to break the silence; it was killing me.

"We're going to the Fifth Division to look for anything that might have to do with who might have done this," he said just as quietly back. Looks like he was still either as shocked about Aizen as me or still very shy about what he did last night. I would assume both. It was dead silent the rest of the way.

When we got there, Rangiku was waiting for us.

"I want you two to look for anything out of place. If you find something tell me. Got it?" To-chan ordered.

"Yes, sir!" me and Rangiku said, and we went into Captain Aizen's office. Rangiku immediately grabbed me from behind.

"Hoshiko, this place is scaring me," she said in a low whisper, so To-chan wouldn't hear.

"Oh stop it. Its just Captain Aizen's office," I whispered back and I pushed her off.

I started walking around the office. It was a lot different than To-chan's office. For one, Momo's desk didn't have any paperwork on it because she actually does hers. Honestly, who does paperwork? I know I don't.

It was really quiet. Not one of us made a noise as we crept around. I felt like a cat burglar looking for valuables. I was getting sick of the silence. I hate it. It makes me feel awkward. But right now, there was nothing for me to say to break the silence. To-chan probably wouldn't answer me, and Rangiku was scared out of her mind.

I looked over at Aizen's desk. The only thing that seemed out of place on it was an envelope. I walked over and picked it up to look at what was written on it. The envelope was addressed to Momo.

"Hey, you guys might want to see this," I said quietly. To-chan came over and took the letter from me.

"What is it Captain?" Rangiku asked from across the room.

"It's a letter addressed to Momo."

"Should we turn it in for analyzing?" I asked. I was more interested in seeing one of my friends from the academy that is in the Twelfth Division than taking the letter there, but it was a good excuse.

"No. we should give it to Momo, since this letter is probably his last words to her. I'm almost positive he knew he was going to be killed," To-chan said. His voice wavered. He sounded like he was getting angry thinking about it, "Rangiku, take this letter to Momo later. Hoshiko, I need to talk to you."

Rangiku took the letter and left. She was probably going to go find her sake To-chan hid from her. The thought made me smile until my thoughts drifted back to the matter at hand.

"What do you want to talk about?" I asked as we walked down a deserted street.

"I didn't want to say anything in front of Rangiku because I know they used to be close friends," he began, "I think Gin Ichimaru is the one who murdered Aizen."

"TOSHIRO!" his accusation took me by surprise, "Those are very strong words to say, especially about another captain!"

"I know, but I heard a conversation between the two. Aizen told Ichimaru to watch himself. Something isn't right in the Seireitei, just promise me you'll stay away from him," he stopped walking and turned to look at me. His face was turning pink, which made mine turn pink because we haven't really even looked at each other since last night. I averted my eyes.

'But Ca-"

"Please?" he asked moving my head, so I had to look at him. He had a look of genuine concern on his face.

"Alright," I said, "I promise."

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**The fluff wasn't too bad was it? I hope not! Please review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**I AM SO SORRY! I know i haven't updated in forever! I feel terrible! But anyways here is chapter 8! WOOO! i hope you all enjoy it!  
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Chiki Nakayama**

_I slowly opened my eyes to see Kisuke looking at me with a concerned expression. I tried to sit up, but I got really dizzy when I tried._

"_Don't try and move. You had a rough mix up with Captain Kuchiki," Kisuke said as he looked at me._

"_Conscience, am I dead?" I asked. Believe me I felt dead, but as soon as the question came out of my mouth I realized I was in my subconscious again._

"_No, you're in your subconscious. Like I said, you got beat up pretty badly by Captain Kuchiki. Your friends are pretty worried, but I'd take your time waking up."_

_I looked away from him. For the first time, I actually looked around my little 'inner world'. I was laying with my head on a protruding root of a large tree that was burning, but only part of it was. Kisuke was leaning against a large rock with a small stream running by it. And the whole field we were in was filled with flowers._

_Despite how pretty everything else was, the burning tree was bothering me. How could a tree burn like that in one spot and not be engulfed?_

"_Conscience, how does that tree not burn?" I asked mystified. It was then that I realized that my glove was gone._

"_That burning tree symbolizes your power. Normally the whole tree is engulfed in flames, but seeing the weak state that you are in, your power is below the normal level. Thus, the tree is only partially on fire," he explained._

_I gave him a weird look. That was a lot of information for me to take in, since my head was still pounding. I looked at my hand again. Where could my glove have possibly gone? Its not like it grew legs and walked away, but then again with this whole weird world I've been thrown into in the past few weeks, what did I know?_

"_So what has been happening, since I've been knocked out?" I asked._

"_Well, you, Kabei, Chad, Uryuu, and that Ganju fellow are in a prison cell right now. I'm not sure where Orihime is," he replied._

"_WE'RE IN PRISON? WHY DIDN'T THEY JUST KILL US?" it's not like I wasn't happy our lives were spared, but I thought they would have just killed us._

"_It turns out that a captain was murdered last night. I heard one of the guards talking about it in front of the prison cell. You guys weren't killed because you're probably going to be questioned," he explained. _

"_I have another question. Why are you Kisuke, but then the real one doesn't know anything about any of these conversations?" That had been bothering me for awhile, and since I had been interrogating him, it felt like now was a good time to ask._

"_I'm something that was made deep within your subconscious, along with this world we are in right now. I'm kind of your personal guide that only you can hear, when you're knocked out of course."_

"_But then how come I met you before I met the real Kisuke?"_

"_That is something you will have to answer on your own, and I have a feeling your heart will give you the answer..someday. But for now, I think you need to wake up."_

_He walked over, picked me up, put me over his shoulder, and was carrying me toward the rock. As it turns out, there was a pond behind it. There wasn't a reflection in the pond, but images of what was going on around my body. Conscience put me down. I peered into the pond._

"_Oh my God! It's all my fault! I told her to keep watch and look at what happened!" Kabei was in hysterics. Half of her body was in bandages. Along with everybody else._

"_Would you calm down!" Uryuu walked over, "The medic said she would be fine." he put a hand on her shoulder._

_I looked back at Conscience. He was watching the burning tree. The flame was growing and getting brighter. I must say I was feeling a bit more chipper too, I guess I am connected to that tree. _

"_You're right, I do need to go back. Kabei is going to drive everyone insane if I don't wake up," I paused for a minute, "How did I get back the last time, I don't remember?"_

"_The last time it was your awakening powers that did it. This time, you have to figure it out yourself."_

"_But I don't know how to even try to!"_

"_You made this place. You can figure it out."_

_I looked around. The only things that stuck out were the tree and the pond. The pond has some sort of connection to my body so…_

"_it's the pond isn't it?" Conscience nodded, "so how do I-"_

_He walked up to me by the edge of the pond. He had a devilish smirk on his face. I had just noticed how close he was to me, when I felt his lips on top of mine. He leaned towards my ear and whispered, "Consider that a present from both of the Kisukes." _

_My face turned bright red as he pushed me into the pond. As he began to disappear from view, I noticed my glove starting to thread itself back onto my arm._

The next thing I knew, my eyes were fluttering open to a prison cell, and all of my friends in it arguing about my welfare.

"Um…guys," I said. They all looked at me.

**Kabei Misuteri**

"Um…guys." I heard a small voice come from behind me. I had Ganju and Uryuu pinned against the wall, and I was getting ready to beat them senseless.

I turned around and saw Chiki sitting up rubbing her eyes. She looked like a little kid that just woke up from a nap. I instantly dropped Ganju and Uryuu. I could feel my bottom lip start quivering. It was then that I flung myself at her.

"CHIKI, I'M SO SORRY! I NEVER SHOULD HAVE LEFT YOU THERE ALONE! YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW SCARED I WAS, I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO LOSE YOU! I PROMISE I WILL NEVER SMACK YOU AGAIN! WILL YOU FORGIVE ME?" I sobbed into my best friend's shoulder. She sat there holding me for a minute.

"I forgive you, but I'm holding you to the no smacking," she said as she pushed me back. She had a small smile on her face. I smiled back.

"Thanks Chiki."

We all sat around in silence for what seemed like forever. Uryuu was sitting on one of the bunks. He had a 'I'm thinking about something serious, so don't bother me,' look on his face. Ganju was sleeping and snoring really loudly I might add. Chad was standing against the wall with his arms crossed, who knows what he was thinking about. Chiki was laying on her bunk looking at the bottom of the bunk on top of hers. And I was sitting in the middle of the cell on the floor, looking at everybody else.

I guess now was as good a time as ever to straighten my thoughts out. Like I seriously want to know what I have gotten myself into. I have been almost completely useless the entire time we've been here. Every soul reaper, minus Hanataro, that I've encountered has kicked my ass. One of them just toying around.

On top of that, I couldn't even protect my best friend. She got struck down twice, but I couldn't do anything. I really must be the most pathe-

"Don't even think it Kabei." I heard Chiki say. I looked up, and she was standing right behind me. I felt her foot connect with my ass, as I went sailing across the cell.

"What was tha-" I was interrupted.

"We already had this discussion. I'm sick of your 'I'm not strong enough' attitude. I've said it before, if you think you can't do it, then you won't," she said looking down at me.

"She's right you know." I heard Uryuu say from his bunk. I knew she was right, but I didn't need him to tell me that.

"Shut up Four Eyes, nobody asked you for a comment!" I snapped.

It was then that a thought crossed my mind.

"Do you any of you guys know what happened to Hanataro?" Everyone froze.

"Ah crap! I completely forgot about him!" Ganju yelled as he smacked himself in the face.

"They wouldn't execute him…would they?" Chiki asked. We thought about it for a moment.

"No. He's only a seventh seat. They wouldn't bother doing that to him," I said, "At least, I wouldn't think."

Everyone seemed satisfied with that and went back to what they were doing before. I went back to being bored stiff. I sat there for a minute, then a thought crossed my mind. We were in a cage. A prison cell is practically the same thing as a giant lockbox. I felt a sudden urge to get out of there asap.

"I HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!" I screamed.

"And how do you plan on doing that?" Uryuu asked. He really had a death wish.

"I don't know!" I wailed, "What do you think we should do Chad?"

For the first time since we've been in here, Chad said something.

"Nothing. We trust our friends to come for us. None of us are in any condition to fight, so we wait for Orihime or Ichigo," he said. He made too much sense.

"Speaking of Orihime, where is she? Wasn't she with you, Uryuu?" Chiki asked.

"Yeah. She's with a soul reaper. I got into a fight with a captain, so I made her go with a soul reaper we met up with. I'm not sure what happened to her after that," he replied. I got up and punched him in the face.

"YOU IDIOT! YOU JUST HANDED HER OVER TO THE ENEMY!" I screamed at him.

"I had no other choice. She would have gotten hurt if she stayed."

I took a step towards him. When my foot hit the ground, there was a loud explosion that shook the building.

"What the hell was that?" Ganju asked. The guards were scattering all over the place.

"I wonder what's going on," Chiki said.

"Me too," I replied quietly as I watched Hoshiko, the well endowed strawberry blonde, and the little captain run by.

**Hoshiko Hikari**

"What's going on in here?" I demanded as we stormed in. The guard was down on his knees. He looked very upset.

"I'm so sorry Captain Hitsugaya! Lieutenant Hinamori called out to me and when I turned around, I was blinded by a white light and was knocked out," he explained.

I looked at To-chan. He had a serious look on his face. He was thinking about something.

"It was hakufuku. Momo is a master of kido. If we were serious about restraining her, we should have sealed some of her spiritual pressure," he finally said.

I looked at the large hole in the wall of the cell. He was right. Hakufuku binds a person's mind and then destroys everything around the user.

"I guess we never thought she would take it this far," I said quietly. Something must have provoked her. It might have been that letter we found earlier that Rangiku brought her.

We walked over to Renji's cell. His too was broken out of from the inside. Izuru's wasn't, and I knew who To-chan thought did it.

"Hoshiko. Rangiku. I want you two to go back to the barracks, and that's an order! I'm going to go save Momo," he demanded, and then he was gone.

"You better head back, but I'm going after him. Orders or no orders," I told Rangiku. Before she could argue I ran down the hall. I was almost out when I felt someone grab my arm. It was Kabei.

"What's going on?" she asked. I'm surprised she wasn't mad at me for letting them get caught.

"Three imprisoned lieutenants have broken out. I'm sorry, but I have to go," I said as I ripped my arm out of her grasp.

I headed toward the Third Division. I knew that's where To-chan was heading because he was after Gin. I stayed hidden in the treetops. I was only going to come out if he really needed me, so that way I wouldn't get in too much trouble.

Even though I was about twenty yards away, I could still hear everything they were saying. Izuru was standing behind Gin. Looks like To-chan was right. But then again he almost always is, and I hate that.

"I'm just glad that I got here before Momo. That way I can kill you before she gets here," To-chan said. He was about to draw his sword when, speak of the devil, Momo appeared.

"It looks like I got here in time," she said. It was so quiet I could barely hear.

"Momo, you can't fight him. Just stand back and let me handle it."

"Everything is here in his letter. The truth behind the execution and his murder, it's all here," she said. The letter was tucked into the front of her shihakusho, "The name of the man who killed him, Toshiro Hitsugaya."

She had her sword drawn, pointed at Toshiro. Gin was standing there smiling. I loathed that man, making Momo freak out like this.

Momo attacked To-chan. Tears were streaming down her face. She felt like she had to do this because 'Captain Aizen' told her to finish what he couldn't. Apparently, my captain was trying to gain the power of the Soukyoku to destroy the Seireitei. This was news to me.

I looked through the tree branches to watch Toshiro knock Momo out.

"Don't you think that was rather harsh? The poor thing is obviously suffering from severe emotional trauma. You didn't have to hit her so hard," Gin said through his snake-like smile.

"I gave you a warning. If you ever hurt Momo, I'D KILL YOU MYSELF!" Toshiro screamed, "Get out of here Izuru! If you are within twelve kilometers in any direction, I'm not sure that I won't kill you by mistake!" He drew his sword. I could feel his spiritual pressure rise. It was getting cold, and I shivered which cause the branch to shake slightly. Gin noticed.

"If you're going to draw your sword here, then I have no choice but to fight back. But let me ask you a question. Would you be more mad at your lieutenant for following you here," my eyes widened and my pulse quickened, "or me for doing this?"

He drew his sword and looked at me.

"Shoot to kill, Shinso."

The blade extended toward me. I tried to dodge, but I wasn't fast enough. It missed my heart as I jumped, but stabbed me right through the side of my stomach.

I screamed out in agony as I coughed up blood. When his Zanpakuto withdrew, I couldn't feel my legs underneath me, but I could feel myself fall out of the tree and land really hard on the ground.

"Now answer my question," Gin said smiling. Toshiro's spiritual pressure spiked. The wind picked up, and it was even colder.

"YOU BASTARD!"

"That doesn't answer my question very well."

Toshiro went at him. I turned my attention to my stab wound. I was losing blood fast, but I had no way of stopping it. I tried to take my mind off of the pain by making my way over to Momo. The sounds of the two captain's Zanpakuto clashing against each other was ringing in my ears.

When I got to Momo, I was extremely lightheaded. I collapsed onto my knees holding my side; hot sticky blood pouring all over my hands. I looked over at Momo, her hands were bleeding from gripping her sword so tight. Someday Gin was going to pay for what he did to her.

I heard swords clash again. I moved my gaze towards the two captains. They were on the roof of the Squad Three building now. Their Zanpakuto pressed against each other. Another wave of pain pulsed through me.

Gin's blade extended out again. Toshiro dodged it, and now it was coming right at me and Momo. I tried to grab Hoshiryuu to block it because I couldn't move. I wasn't fast enough.

In a desperate attempt to not die, I threw my free arm up to take the blow instead of my face. I never felt the impact. I heard that scraping metal on metal noise. Rangiku was there blocking the attack.

"I'm sorry for going against your orders Captain, but I felt Hyourinmaru's spiritual pressure and thought you might be in trouble, so I came back," she said, "Gin, back down now. Or I'll be your opponent."

He got a sad look on his face. Something I had never seen before on the great Gin Ichimaru.

"Very well," he said, and then he vanished with Izuru. Rangiku turned around. She had a look of concern on her face as she stared at my wound.

"Oh thank God you showed up," I whispered before the world went black.

**Chiki Nakayama**

"Guess what?" I asked everyone in the prison cell plus the guard. He joined in after awhile. Probably out of boredom more than anything.

"What Chiki?" they all responded in unison. Their voices were very monotoned, almost like they were bored or something.

"There are two hundred forty brickes on that wall," I said. I had been spouting off random things that I had noticed about the cell we were in for about in hour now.

"That's great," everyone responded. They sounded like robots.

I was about to open my mouth to say 'guess what' again, but Kabei got up and hit me over the head.

"OUCH!"

"If you say 'guess what' one more time, I will rip you apart. Starting with your hair, piece by piece," Kabei threatened. I heeded her warning because I knew that she wasn't all talk; she would actually do it.

"Getting a little stir crazy, Vegetable Girl?" Ganju asked. He had a smirk on his face.

"YOU WANT TO MAKE SOMETHING OF IT PIG MAN!"

"HEY! Quiet down in there! I swear you ryoka have got to be the loudest prisoners," the guard sighed. I felt bad for him. The sun was starting to come up and light flooded the cell.

"Excuse me guard?" a voice from down the hall said.

"Yes Lieutenant Hikari."

"Can you leave the premises for a moment? I must speak to the ryoka."

"Of course, Lieutenant!" He scurried away like a squirrel.

Hoshiko walked in front of the cell. She looked worn down, and her breathing was more strained. She didn't have that usual smile plastered on her face either.

"What are you doing here?" Kabei asked. I could tell those two didn't particularly like each other.

"I have some bad news for you. Rukia Kuchiki's execution has been moved up," she had a sad look on her face, "It's today."

"Are you serious!" Uryuu asked. Everyone's eyes got wide.

"Yes, we got news of it yesterday."

"Then why didn't you come to tell us sooner?" Ganju questioned. Hoshiko sighed and then winced, like it hurt her to do it.

"I don't have much time to fill you in because I should be resting right now, so listen up. Things have been stressful in the Seireitei. I'm sure you heard about the murder of a captain. My captain is positive he knows who did it, but he has been framed for the murder himself, so we can't do anything about it. Last night, we had a run in with the man we believe is responsible, but we had to let him go, for there is no solid eveidence," she explained. She winced again.

"So what are you going to do about it?" Uryuu asked.

"I'm not sure, but Rukia's execution is all a plot for someone to gain the power of the Sokyoku, which is said to have the power of a million Zanpakuto. It usually wouldn't be used for the execution of someone that isn't even a seated officer. It's almost unheard of," she said before she started coughing.

"What's wrong with you?" Kabei asked.

"Like I said, we had a little run in with the man who is seemingly responsible. He noticed that I was hiding in a tree nearby, and I was attacked," she explained. Hoshiko lifted up the bottom of her shirt to show us the bandaged wound, "I didn't get out of the way fast enough."

I thought it looked like blood was starting to seep through the bandages. I could tell that it was hurting her to be here right now.

"So are you going to like, break us out or something?" Kabei asked. She could be so insensitive sometimes.

"Oh, that's right. I have good news too. The cavalry is on the way. When I leave, I'm going to take the guard out, so there won't be any trouble for them," she said with a smile. It was the first time she smiled since she got here. "Not that he will be a problem. Toodles!"

She just walked away after that. I wonder what she meant by the 'cavalry'.

"Well that's just great! The little brat left us in the hands of someone we don't know!" Kabei yelled.

"So…Vegetable Girl, was that the little shrimp that beat you up?" Ganju was laughing when he said this.

"I hate you so much," Kabei said as she turned her head away.

"What's that cracking noise?" Chad asked. We all looked up. The ceiling was about to implode on us.

"Get out of the way!" Uryuu yelled. The ceiling fell in to reveal six soul reapers. A really big one with bells in his hair that jingled, a guy with feathered eyebrows, a bald man, a little girl with pink hair, and a mustached man. Then there was…Orihime?

"YAY! We found the ryoka! Right Ken-Chan!" the little girl yelled.

**Kabei Misuteri**

"Orihime?" we all said in unison. I must say I'm surprised to see her.

"Hi guys!" she was hanging on the back of the big scary man. The bells on the ends of his spiky hair reminded me of Santa Claus. He was not fat and jolly though.

"Orihi-" Uryuu started but was interrupted by Chiki.

"YOU'RE REALLY BIG!" she exclaimed as she stared at the Santa Claus guy. Chiki's mouth was gaping open. I swear she had a mental disorder.

"IT"S YOU!" Ganju and the pretty boy screamed, pointing at each other.

"I thought I wouldn't have to see your ugly face anymore, but it looks like I thought wrong," the pretty boy said with his nose turned up.

"Why you feather browed, bowl cut narcissist!" Ganju yelled back. I'm going to side with the gay guy on this one.

"Are you the people Hoshiko sent for?" Uryuu asked.

"Yeah. The little traitor promised us that we would have some good fights," Santa replied. He had a really rough voice. It scared me.

'Plus they had me!" Orihime exclaimed, "ouch! Yachiru! Don't pull on me like that!"

"OOPS! Sorry Jiggles!" the little girl exclaimed.

"Are we going to go help Ichigo or not?" I said finally. We had been just standing here for almost ten minutes.

"YAY! Let's go help Ichi!" Yachiru cheered. That little brat couldn't' have gotten anyone else?

We were all running down the streets again. It was day break now, so we were going to be noticed; I could just tell. I was trying desperately to keep up with everyone, but I'm a slow runner. Chiki was riding on Santa's back with Orihime and Yachiru. I got stuck running with the guys.

"Ken-chan! Curls is getting tired!"

"I am not!"

"Sorry about her. Not only is she moody and lazy, but Kabei isn't very athletically inclined," Chiki said. Everyone laughed, even Chad.

"Remind me to kill you before we go back home where its illegal!" I yelled at her. She laughed.

"Ryoka!" I heard someone scream from behind us. A couple of unseated soul reapers spotted us.

"I'll get this!" Chiki said. She jumped down and faced the soul reapers. "SUPA- KU!"

A burst of flame came out of her fingers as she snapped them. Within seconds they were burnt to a crisp, laying on the ground twitching. Chiki jumped back onto Santa's back.

"Yay! Glovey did it!" Yachiru exclaimed, latching onto Chiki.

"Yeah I did!" Chiki was somewhat surprised with herself. I could just tell from the dumbfounded look on her face.

"So she makes fire. What do you do?" Baldy asked as we ran.

"I create masses of dark energy that eat souls," I said sarcastically.

"Oh you do not! You get beat up!" Chiki chimed in.

"You want to come down here and say that to my face!" I yelled at her. She just laughed and held on tighter.

We kept going. I could tell that we were lost. Santa and Yachiru had no sense of direction. Baldy and the gay boy wonder weren't saying a thing about it.

"Why don't you two say something about where to go?" I whispered. They looked at me like I was crazy.

"We don't have a death wish," the gay boy wonder replied in that feminine voice of his. I looked at Santa. He had a point.

"I never thought you could get any lower Zaraki, but I guess you can. Helping the ryoka," a voice said from up ahead. Santa came to a screeching halt. There were two captains up ahead and two others. Lieutenants probably.

"You guys go meet up with Ichigo. We'll stay here and hold them off," Santa said. Chiki and Orihime jumped down. Chad, Uryuu, Chiki, Orihime, Ganju, and me took off, in the right direction this time.

"Where do you think Ichigo is?" Orihime asked.

"I'm guessing up there on that hill," Chiki said, pointing towards it.

"Is that where they hold the executions?" I asked.

"I would assume so, considering there is a large pointy object up there," Uryuu said. He pushed his glasses up.

"Don't talk to me like I'm stupid!" I yelled back at him.

"I hardly think what he said was offensive. Now if he had called you ugly or-" Ganju started.

"Don't even start talking ugly pig man!" I interrupted him.

"I think we should stop yelling. We don't need to attract trouble," Chad said.

He was right. We don't need anymore trouble. Especially since every time we run into a soul reaper we get beat up and thrown in prison.

We kept moving and ducking behind buildings, and occasionally knocking out a few soul reapers. That pattern stuck with us until we reached the foot of the hill.

"What now?" Chiki asked.

"You go up the hill!" Yachiru was sitting on a rock behind us.

"You expect us to go straight up a cliff? Sorry to disappoint you, but that's not happening," I said, looking up the rock wall.

"If you give me lots of candy, I'll show you another way!" she chirped.

"The next time we see you, we'll be sure to bring all sorts of candy from our world, okay?" Orihime said. She smiled sweetly at the little girl.

"okay! Follow me!"

We ended up at the base of the hill where it slanted down and was covered in trees.

"Now you just walk up!" Yachiru was pointing toward the top.

"Thank you!" we all said in unison before we took off running again.

"How long is this hill?" I yelled. We were getting nowhere fast, and I was beginning to fall behind.

"Its starting to flatten out _**WAAAAAY **_up here!" Chiki called down to me. She was _**WAAAAAY **_upthere. Everyone else was somewhere in between.

When I finally caught up to them, I could see in between the trees. There were a few soul reapers there. Rukia was being led in.

"What are we going to do?" Orihime asked. We all looked at each other.

"As beat up as we are, we won't stand a chance against those soul reapers. I say we wait for Ichigo," Uryuu said.

"I agree," I said, "there's no way we could handle them. Except maybe gramps over there."

I pointed to a very old looking man with a cane. He had a long white beard and a captain's cloak.

"Do you think he's a captain?" Chiki asked.

"Yup!" Yachiru jumped down in the middle of us. "He's the head captain! The strongest soul reaper in the Soul Society! I like him he gives me candy!"

"Head captain? I take back what I said earlier," I mumbled.

All of a sudden the spiritual pressure increased. It was really heavy, pushing Chiki and Orihime to their knees.

"They're releasing the Soukyoku!" Uryuu yelled. A large fiery bird began to appear.

"We're too late," Chiki said sadly.

I looked up. The Soukyoku stopped.

"Hey! Look!" I yelled. Ichigo was there, standing in front of Rukia. The Soukyoku burst into millions of pieces. He grabbed Rukia and threw her down to that red haired soul reaper from before.

"That idiot. What if he hadn't caught her?" Uryuu said.

"you'd have to be pretty crazy to follow a guy like that," Ganju said, "I think I just insulted myself.

I laughed at that. It had been awhile since I had laughed. The red haired guy ran off with Rukia, and now Ichigo was facing off with that black haired captain.

"Should we help him?" Orihime asked.

"No, you'll only get in his way," Yachiru said, "this is his fight. He only needs to know that you're here, cheering him on."

And I was again baffled by this world I stumbled into, but what she said made sense.

'C'mon Ichigo,' I thought to myself, 'I know you can do this.'

And from way across the field, I saw the faintest of smirks on his face.

**Hoshiko Hikari**

After I left the prison, I went back to the office. I had stayed in there all night with Rangiku and To-chan fussing over me. When I got up to go to the prison, they were both asleep. I just hope they still are.

I tip-toed down the hallway and slowly opened the office door.

"WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!" To-chan yelled the moment I walked in the door.

"I went to tell the ryoka that Rukia's execution had been moved up. I figured they had a right to know," I replied.

"You shouldn't be up moving around like that. Remember that you have a serious stab wound in your side."

"Actually I hardly remember anything that happened last night because of momentary blackouts from pain and blood loss," I said sarcastically. He rolled his eyes.

I sat down slowly on the couch, so I wouldn't hit my side. There were still bloody bandages and wraps on the floor.

"You might want to pick up these bandages before someone sees them," I said pointing to them.

"I have more important things to worry about than explaining why my lieutenant was bleeding all over my office," he said,

"Like what?"

"Like what we're going to do right now."

He grabbed my hand and pulled me up from the couch and out the door. It all happened so fast that we were outside by the time I realized we were moving anywhere.

"Where are we going?" I asked as I followed him down the street.

"Something isn't right. We're going to the Central 46 to stop this execution."

I followed him silently through the Seireitei. I looked up towards Soukyoku Hill. There wasn't anyone up there yet.

"Hey! I can't believe you two would leave me behind!" Rangiku appeared behind us.

"If you weren't so lazy, we might have brought you with us," To-chan said. He didn't sound very amused.

"You're so mean Captain!" Rangiku exclaimed.

Something wasn't right when we got to the Central 46 Chambers. It was really quiet. Well it was usually quiet since they never leave, but there was something about this silence that wasn't right.

"This is Captain Hitsugaya of Squad Ten! Please open this door!" he yelled, pounding on it. It never opened.

"Try breaking it down," I suggested. He took out Hyourinmaru and blasted the door into oblivion.

A stench of decay and blood seeped out. It made the air feel thick and clingy. We walked slowly in.

I screamed. To-chan threw his hand over my mouth.

"Oh my God," Rangiku whispered.

The entire Central 46 laid slaughtered in front of us. Toshiro walked further down the steps. He wiped his fingers through a pool of blood.

"It's dry. They've been dead for awhile," he said, rubbing his fingers together. There was a thoughtful expression on his face.

"B-bu- but the doors. They've been on lockdown. H- how did this happen?" I stuttered. My legs were shaking so badly, I thought they were going to collapse.

"Someone must have been in here before the ryoka invaded. That's when the doors to the Central 46 were locked," he said, looking up at me and Rangiku. "So every order given from Central 46 has been fake."

"So the execution?" I asked.

"We need to stop it," he said. He walked back up the stairs towards the two of us. I was about to say something to him when I heard something move behind me.

"I thought I would find you here."

I turned around. Izuru was standing in the doorway, looking down at us.

"What is the meaning of this Kira?" Toshiro yelled. Izuru turned around and flash stepped away.

The three of us took off after him, running up the stairs towards daylight. He was jumping over the rooftops away from us. Something wasn't right. Why did he keep running away?

We kept chasing him until he stopped suddenly and turned to face us.

"If I were you, I wouldn't be worrying about me but more about Momo," Izuru said. Toshiro visibly stiffened. I shot Rangiku a look. She had an uncharacteristically serious look on her face.

"Momo is at the Squad Ten barracks, and I personally put a barrier around the room she is in," Toshiro said.

"I wouldn't be so sure. Momo is a master of kido, breaking that barrier and suppressing her spiritual pressure so she could follow you would be a small task for her."

"Captain, let me handle him. You two go after Momo," Rangiku said. Toshiro turned to go and pulled me with him.

As fast as I am, I was having issues keeping up with him on our way back to the Central 46 Chambers. I knew he was worried about Momo.

"Hoshiko," he said when we got there, "stay close and watch my back will you?"

I nodded and followed him back into the building. We went through the meeting room and down the stairs that led further down. Toshiro froze suddenly, causing me to run into him. It would have been comical in another situation. I lifted my head up to see what made him stop.

"C-Ca-Captain Aizen…" I said softly.

"I was wondering when the two of you would show up," he said, he was standing in front of an entrance to one of the many rooms. Gin was standing a little off to his left.

"H-ho-how…b-but," I couldn't get the what I wanted to say out of my mouth. Aizen was just standing there smiling the same warm smile he always had smiled. Toshiro was very tense beside me.

"Where's Momo?" he yelled. Aizen's eye narrowed and his smile became more evil looking. He stepped out of the way of the door. Momo was lying there in a pool of blood. Her eyes were glazed over.

"You bastard! How could you do that to your lieutenant? She trusted you! I trusted you!" he yelled. His spiritual pressure was rising unbelievably high. "She admired you more than anyone!"

Aizen merely kept the same expression on his face.

"Let me tell you something, Captain of Squad Ten. Admiration is the furthest thing from understanding. I couldn't have had a better lieutenant. Someone who followed and trusted me so blindly," Aizen said. He looked up and quirked an eyebrow. "How nice of you to join us, Captain Unohana."

I turned around to find Captain Unohana and Isane running into the room. I looked toward Toshiro. His hard gaze was fixed on Aizen.

"BANKAI! Daiguren Hyourinmaru!" A blast of freezing air hit me with the force of hurricane, knocking me back. I threw my arms up to protect my face from the flying shards of ice. Captain Unohana and Isane doing the same behind me.

Aizen had an amused look on his face. He turned to Gin.

"Gin, grab the girl. Make sure she can't get away."

Before what he said had even registered in my mind, Gin had a hold of me, and I couldn't get away.

AIZEN!"

Toshiro's sudden outburst turned my attention back to him. He was charging Aizen in a blind rage, which any skilled fighter knows is almost always suicide.

"TOSHIRO, STOP!" I screamed, but it was too late. Aizen had stabbed him straight through the shoulder, right next to his heart.

"It's rather nice to see ice this time of year," Aizen said, smiling as though nothing had happened.

I felt something inside me snap as I watched Toshiro fall to the ice covered floor. I could feel the tears begin to pool up, blurring my vision.

"T-Toshiro!" I cried, trying to get away from Gin. The stab wound in my side opened up. The blood began to seep through the bandages.

"Now, now. That's a pretty nasty wound in your side. You better stop struggling so much," Gin said. It just made me struggle to get away even more.

"Gin, I said to make _sure _she can't get away," Aizen chuckled darkly. My breath caught in my throat.

"Oh that's right. Better make _sure_."

A loud cracking sound filled the empty space around us as the bones in my leg were shattered. I screamed in pain and more tears started to form. I knew I wasn't going to get away now. I looked over at Captain Unohana and Isane, hoping they would help me.

"Captain Aizen. No it wouldn't be right to call you that. You're a traitor now, Sosuke Aizen," Captain Unohana said.

"I was wondering when you would figure it out. I knew you of all people would figure out my body was a fake." He pulled out an exact replica of himself.

"Where did that come from?" Isane exclaimed. Her eyes were wide. I could tell she was scared.

"I've been holding it this whole time. That's Kyoka Suigetsu's power, complete hypnosis."

"But Kyoka Suigetsu is a water type Zanpakuto! I remember! You showed all of the lieutenants before."

"That was the ceremony, wasn't it? Only those that have seen the shikai release will be fooled by the illusion, correct?" Captain Unohana said.

"Yes. That is correct. While it has been fun chatting, I do believe it's time for us to go," Aizen said. He looked over at Gin and me.

I don't think I've ever been more scared in my life as the scene from the Central 46 faded and slowly turned into the top of Soukyoku Hill.

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**So did you like? Please review! i would much appreciate it! Tell me what you think! :)**


	9. Announcement for my dear readers!

Hello my dear readers! I know that it has been forever since I last updated! I have been super busy with finals and school stuff lately.

Just to let you all know, I will have a new chapter up before Christmas! I am making myself sit down and write like I've never written before!

Plus my Christmas gift to you is a going to not only be a new chapter after like a month, but also a Christmas special where all of our favorite Bleach characters, plus Chiki, Kabei, and Hoshiko, get together and celebrate the Holidays!

That, I hope, will be up by Christmas as well. If not, then it will be up on Christmas Day!

Don't lose faith in me yet! I swear chapters will come out more regularly!


	10. Chapter 10

**So I'm really super sorry i haven't updated this in like two years almost for all of you who have actually been reading this. I'm not even going to try and explain myself out of this one. The only thing i can do is apologize that you will probably have to reread the whole story to recall everything that has happened. And of course I have been busy, but I have had time to write and chose to do other things. Shame on me. Well here is the next chapter. I hope you enjoy. **

**ps. My writing is better in this chapter than in previous ones because it's been like two years and of course i do so much writing in my honors English IV class lol**

**Disclaimer: I DO NOT own Bleach! I only own Chiki, Kabei, and Hoshiko:)**

* * *

**Chiki Nakayama**

There was a sudden blast of spiritual pressure, and then it was over. I looked up, and Kabei was already at Ichigo's side helping him up. The black haired captain was gone.

"Ichigo! You did it!" I yelled as the rest of us ran over.

He stood up and smiled at us as Orihime glomped him knocking him back over.

"Orihime, don't hurt him!" Uryuu scolded.

"Oh! I'm sorry Ichigo!' she said startled.

"Its okay. He said getting up and dusting himself off again. Let's go find Rukia and get out of here," Ichigo said and led the group over to the path that led down the hill.

"I can't wait to get back and see Conscience!" I exclaimed spinning around as we hiked down the hill.

"So I can tell him how you're scared of heights and got us caught on numerous occasions," Kabei smirked at me.

"That's not very nice! Besides, I'm the one that got Hoshiko to take us to the tower in the first place," I said smugly.

"Then you got us caught," Ganju said. I decided to quit before I fell behind and pouted.

All of a sudden, a force of crushing spiritual pressure appeared on top of the hill.

"I wonder who that is?" Ichigo asked.

"Ichigo." Chad started.

"Don't you recognize Rukia's spiritual pressure?" Uryuu scolded. My eyes got wide as I noticed someone else's.

"Kabei! Hoshiko is up there too!"

"I couldn't care less about that brat."

Before either of us could stop him, Ichigo was back up on top of the hill. We chased after him. When the top of the hill opened back up above us, Ichigo was standing there with the red haired soul reaper, Rukia, three captains one of which had a hold of Hoshiko.

"You idiots! Get away from here!" Hoshiko screamed at us.

"Now, now. You're going to get me in trouble again," the silver haired captain holding her said.

"Renji, hand over Rukia, and you won't get hurt," the captain with glasses said.

"I'm not handing her over to you!" Renji responded.

"Then I'll have to cut you down first."

Renji drew his sword as the captain went at him. I could hardly see the captain move. His spiritual pressure had us paralyzed, minus Ichigo.

Ichigo jumped into the fight. Renji set Rukia down, and him and Ichigo prepared for a duel attack. Renji created an opening for Ichigo, and he charged the captain.

He looked like he was going to hit him. Then the captain caught Ichigo's blade between his fingers and the force of the attack was redirected at Ichigo, cutting him through the stomach.

"Ichigo!" I heard Kabei scream from behind me.

He walked over to Rukia and picked her up by the collar that was on her. Some pillars appeared around her and he stuck his hand through her chest, pulling out some sort of stone.

The moment the stone was out of her, a beam of white light connected it to Hoshiko's chest. Her skin began to morph into another stone similar to the one in the captain's hand. The star shaped stone sat perfectly in her chest. The captain looked down at Ichigo.

"Since you are going to die, I see no harm in telling you about my plan. This stone is known as the Hogyoku. It can separate the line between hollow and soul reaper. The other stone that Hoshiko is holding for me is a sister gem to the Hogyoku. It's called the Sugyuku. I'm not going to tell you what that does because we have listening ears." He pointed at Hoshiko.

Before he could start again, soul reapers began to appear. Yoruichi and another captain got a hold of the mean captain. An old soul reaper appeared.

"Aizen! What is the meaning of this?" he demanded.

"I'm going to break down the barriers between hollow and soul reaper, and make myself the ultimate warrior. A god."

Another soul reaper that looked like a dog appeared and started yelling at the black captain. All of a sudden, a rift in the sky opened up and three beams of light came down from large hollows.

"Gin, drop her!" I heard a woman yell. The silver haired captain dropped Hoshiko as a beam of light lifted him and the other traitors up into the rift in the sky. Aizen took off his glasses and slicked his hair back as he disappeared. Despite the seriousness of the situation, I thought it made him look pretty badass.

**Kabei Misuteri**

After they disappeared, a bunch of soul reapers that must have been medics appeared. They started running all over the place to help the injured.

"Help the ryoka as well, for they are our allies now!" the motherly looking captain ordered.

I looked over at Hoshiko. The third seat in her squad was trying to hold her down without much luck.

"Hoshiko, you need to be healed before you run off!" she pleaded.

"But Toshiro!' she complained struggling against the other woman.

"hey pipsqueak, maybe you should calm down and listen for once," I said as I walked over to them.

"Kabei!" Chiki yelled at me, giving me a stern look.

"What I'm right aren't I?"

"That's still not a very nice thing to say. You're not very sympathetic you know."

"You're the last person I need scolding me about morals!"

Hoshiko managed to get away from her third seat and was struggling to walk. I stepped in front of her.

"Where do you think you're going?" I asked.

"I need to see my captain, to know if he's okay," she said quietly with a sad look in her eyes.

"Look you're not going to do him any good like this. You'll only make him upset, seeing you all beat up. Listen to her,' I pointed over my shoulder at the lady with huge boobs, "and get yourself fixed up first."

She looked like she was going to protest again, so I picked her up and threw her over my shoulder. She yelped in pain. I had a feeling her leg was broke and that wound in her side was still sore. I took her over to one of the healers and dropped her there and went off to find my friends. When I got to them, a huge shadow came over us. The large spiky captain was standing in our sun.

"You guys are staying in my division because where you are is where Ichigo will be, and I want to fight him again," he had this crazy grin across his face. I felt my eyes get really wide. I hope Ichigo heals fast.

"Yay! Company! I love company! Right, Ken-chan?" Yachiru exclaimed as she popped up on his shoulder.

I had this strange feeling we weren't going to be able to go home for awhile and staying with these guys made me feel uneasy. I'd rather stay with the pipsqueak. Maybe this is a bad dream and I'm still in that prison cell listening to Chiki count bricks.

**Hoshiko Hikari**

It had been a couple of weeks since the events on Soukyoku Hill. I had a brace put on my leg because they couldn't heal my leg with kido because of the way it was broken. So I had to let it heal naturally, which is a pain because To-chan won't let me do anything besides sit in the office.

I rubbed the place on my chest where that ominous, yet beautiful gem called the Sugyuku now sat and sighed. I never showed it when others were around, especially Toshiro, but I was scared. I didn't know what it did, or what Aizen wanted from me. No one else had a clue either. I heard footsteps coming down the hallway, and I quickly pulled myself together.

"Do you have that paperwork done yet?" To-chan asked as he walked in.

"Yes.' I lied. I felt bad for not doing it because he had taken on Squad Five's papers too to help Momo out, since she was by herself now and was still in the hospital.

"Don't lie to me."

I stuck my tongue out. A gutsy move since I couldn't move. He sighed and sat down. I tried to lighten the mood.

"Do you remember the first thing I said when you told me about Hyourinmaru?" I asked.

"You scrunched your face up and said 'I don't like snow'."

"No. I said that I didn't like cold snow and then we got into our very first argument about snow being cold."

He smirked. I succeeded. A little, anyways.

"What day is it?" I asked.

"Friday."

I looked at the clock. It was almost noon.

"Dang it!" I yelled as I got up as fast as I could. I grabbed my crutches.

"where are you going?" he asked.

"They're leaving at noon! I have to be there!"

Today was the day the ryoka were leaving. I wanted to see them off since I developed a bit of a relationship with them after helping them find Rukia and setting up a prison break. I told To-chan about it not long ago. He knew I wanted to be there.

"Go." he sighed.

I hobbled out of the building and ran into Captain Ukitake. He smiled at me.

"Are you going to see the ryoka off?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'm not going to get there in time though,' I said looking down at my leg.

"I'm going there too. I'll carry you then we can use flash step."

"Thank you!" he picked me up and we were there in a minute.

Kabei and Chiki noticed me right away. The others turned and saw me. I gave a small wave and smile.

"HOSHIKO!" Chiki yelled and hugged me. She liked me more than Kabei did. It was a mutual feeling of disdain between Kabei and me.

"The Senkaimon is ready," a random person announced.

"I guess this is good-bye," Chiki said sadly.

"Good riddance,' Kabei said smirking at me.

"Not really. I'm sure we'll see each other again real soon," I smiled.

They all walked into the Senkaimon, and it closed behind them. I sighed, and a smile spread across my face. It was going to be a long hard fought battle when Aizen makes his move, but I know that we won't lose. Those humans are too hard headed and determined. I laughed thinking about it, then I turned around and began heading back towards the Tenth Division and a mountain of papers.

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**Okay, so obviously this is the end of the Soul Society Arc, and now I have a very important question for any readers I may still have after two years. Does anyone actually want the Bount Arc? Or the better question would be, does anyone actually like the Bount Arc? I'd be glad to do it, but ****I personally find it way to long. If I don't do it, I'll probably throw in some little filler episodes, nothing long, and then go into the Arrancar stuff. **

**Once again, thanks for reading!** _**:)**_


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